Dent Clin N Am 50 (2006) xiii–xiv

Preface

James R. Hupp, DMD, MD, JD, MBA

Guest Editor

Contemporary dental education well prepares dental practitioners to

manage oral, maxillofacial, and craniofacial problems in our patients and
to anticipate how such care may affect a patient’s entire physiology. This
care includes that for patients with compromising medical diseases and con-
ditions, and requires the dental professional to adapt dental care to either
help improve, or, at the least, not further compromise the overall health
of patients.
Dentists and dental hygienists should regularly seek out information that
will help them stay abreast of ongoing advances in dental care strategies,
techniques, equipment, and materials. Similarly, the rapid pace of improve-
ment in the understanding of and care for medical problems requires dental
care providers to find various vehicles of acquiring such knowledge.
This issue of the Dental Clinics of North America seeks to provide dental
professionals with an up-to-date reference for the pathophysiology and
management of major medical conditions and, as importantly, to serve as
a means for understanding how dental care may need to be modified in
the face of various medical issues.
The editor has gathered together a talented group of dental academicians,
all of whom are ‘‘wet-gloved’’ dentists. They were each charged with re-
searching their topic to bring readers the latest ideas and facts and to present
them in a complete yet efficient manner, with an eye toward helping the
reader apply the information to patient care in the dental setting. I am
pleased that they have accomplished this charge in such an able manner.

0011-8532/06/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cden.2006.07.001 dental.theclinics.com
xiv PREFACE

I wish to thank each of the authors, as well as John Vassallo, Associate

Publisher at Elsevier. I feel that we have together produced a valuable con-
tribution to the clinical dental literature.

James R. Hupp, DMD, MD, JD, MBA

Dean and Professor of Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery
School of Dentistry
University of Mississippi Medical Center
2500 North State Street
Jackson, MS 39216-4505, USA
E-mail address: jhupp@sod.umsmed.edu