Jan Lindhe's "Clinical Periodontology and Implant Dentistry"

Presentation

Clinical Periodontology and Implant Dentistry is the reference textbook first published in 1983 by Jan Lindhe. Several successive editions exist today, the latest co-edited with Niklaus P. Lang and Thorkild Karring, who expanded the book's scope to implant dentistry as the field evolved.

Authors

Jan Lindhe (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) initiated the work and served as its lead editor until 2015. Niklaus P. Lang and Thorkild Karring, both major figures in European periodontal research, joined the editorial team over successive editions.

Content and approach

The book covers the full breadth of the discipline: biology of the healthy and diseased periodontium, etiology and pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment options (non-surgical, surgical, regenerative), and implant dentistry in the most recent editions. Its distinguishing feature, from the first edition onward, is grounding every clinical recommendation in published scientific literature rather than the authors' individual experience or opinion — an unusual approach for a periodontology textbook in the early 1980s.

Reach and influence

Described in the literature as the discipline's "cornerstone reference work," it is used as course material in a large number of dental schools worldwide, and regularly updated to reflect the state of research — six editions between 1983 and 2015 under Lindhe's direction, with publication continuing since under his co-editors.

Conclusion

More than just a textbook, this work has helped define what a modern periodontology textbook should be: a synthesis of scientific evidence, updated at the pace of research, rather than a fixed collection of practices passed down from one generation to the next.