Avijit Banerjee; 2024; Elsevier; £50.99 (hardback); pp. 308; ISBN: 978-0-4431-0971-3

As a strong advocate for conservative, minimum intervention oral care and minimally invasive operative dentistry, I am delighted to see the successor to ‘Pickard's' available on the market and written by a recognised expert in this field. This textbook is suitable for all members of the oral healthcare team and will act as an important reference text for undergraduate, newly qualified and experienced practitioners. The textbook is very well laid out, starting with a comprehensive overview of hard tissues pathologies including caries, tooth wear, trauma and developmental defects. Each aspect is very well illustrated with colourful diagrams and clinical photos, making the concepts described easily accessible and understandable to all readers.

As the reader moves though the book, they are introduced to the principles and clinical domains of minimum intervention oral care (MIOC) delivery, including identifying clinical problems, phased personalised care planning, disease control and lesion prevention, minimally invasive operative interventions and material choices. Each domain is again illustrated using clinical cases and relevant diagrams to orientate the reader.

The text also includes a comprehensive description of the often forgotten element of MIOC: clinical reassessment, recall and maintenance, which are all vitally important for successful care outcomes for our patients. It is particularly pleasing to see that the book contains a series of self-assessment questions throughout, so that readers of all stages can test their understanding, recall and application of the concepts described.

Personally, I found Chapter 10 to be a particular highlight of the textbook as this describes a series of worked clinical scenarios as to how clinicians and teams can apply the MIOC delivery framework to their own patients in primary care practice. This chapter demonstrates how the MIOC domains can be applied to high-risk adults and children, older adults and low-risk adults in a series of illustrated reference tables which describe how appointments can be scheduled and planned. Given the relevance of these tables to everyday clinical practice, it is very easy to see how readers can apply the MIOC delivery framework in their own primary care team clinical environment, almost immediately.

In an era of operative dental care appearing to become increasingly invasive in pursuit of aesthetics, it is welcome to see such a well-written and structured textbook which offers simple, practical care for patients of all ages with a focus on maintaining vital tooth tissues.