Book review

Jo Frencken wrote this book in early retirement holed up in New York Dental School courtesy of Mark Wolf. It is about his Life's Work on Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART). NYU provided the perfect peaceful location at the ideal time − the text would have been ready to precipitate from the mind to the draft. The topic is appropriately cocooned within Minimal Intervention Dentistry, since no handpiece is used; enamel and dentine are mercifully spared. The key elements are hand instruments and an adhesive material for sealing and restoration.

Initial chapters on caries in enamel and dentine, and appropriate adhesive materials for the technique, give background to explain what is to follow. A chapter on the evolution of ART is a particular delight. What happened to spark this idea? The personal story and the many colleagues involved; it is a page-turner and subsequent world-wide developments are inspiring, leading to the position of ART in the world today. If you feel trapped in your surgery walls, read this and reflect on the wider world.