A preliminary proposal was carried out by Linkow with the toroplant, a subperiostal implant seated on the hard palatal bone rather than the more porous bone near the dental arch. Subsequently came the labio-palatal flange type implant, followed by the pterygoid extension implant which, reaching backwards to the tuberosity of the maxilla and just distal to the hamular notch where there is a shaped area of dense bone, is intended to act as a posterior support for an arch with an almost totally resorbed crest.

The main merit of Leonard Linkow's latest book is the caution and reserve the author maintains even on his own implant methods. The fact that many patients have 20-year-old subperiostal implants, and that he himself has a 9-year record of success with the endo-osseous blade vents, is not sufficient, in his own eyes, as a full demonstration of long-term success. He has often expressed this reserve to me, showing a highly developed sense of professional ethics. He has always insisted a dentist should advise his patient of the limitations of dental implants. Exaggerated promises or claims about any dental procedure, including those now considered "classic", are unfair to the patient and eventually troublesome for the practitioner.

One could hardly go wrong in forecasting for this book the kind of success that has crowned all Leonard Linkow's activity to date. His lively, spontaneous and generous personality, and the originality of his inventions, have aroused interest among researchers and practitioners throughout the world. Implantprosthesis has unquestionably gained from his method which, when used after attentive preparation by some-one with proven experience, for precise, well-assessed general or local indications, can prove the solution for many cases of partial or total edentulism.

Professor Oscar Hoffer, Head, Odontoiatric and Stomatological Clinic, University degli Studi, MILAN, Italy.

xii