Book excerpt: The first book in an exciting new series, Head, Neck and Dental Emergencies provides the reader with a working approach to the diagnosis and management of these patients in casualty. It has been laid out in a similar way to the Oxford Handbooks series - a small format, plastic-covered, note-based, practical volume for looking up information quickly. The book covers how to diagnose and manage all urgent or emergent problems that occur above the collar bones. Emergency care must be simple and quick so this book comprises short notes, illustrations and photographs, with an emphasis on establishing the diagnosis while maintaining a high index of suspicion. Where possible, the book covers one topic per on one to three pages and uses a series of four icons to allow rapid identification of the degree of urgency. This system will help the reader to get an idea of how soon each problem should be seen. Aimed primarily at undergraduate dentistry students, this book will also have a wide postgraduate market amongst dentists and junior doctors and nurses in accident and emergency medicine, maxillofacial surgery, ENT, opthalmology, anesthetics and plastic surgery.