The 13th edition of Prosthodontic Treatment for Edentulous Patients seeks to maintain our commitment to guiding dental students, dentists, and prosthodontists to make the best-informed clinical decisions while optimally managing the needs of edentulous patients. As practicing dentists and clinical educators, we continue to seek educational formats that reconcile established clinical protocols with research developments, while never losing sight of the ultimate beneficiaries of our professional skills—our patients. The latter have become increasingly aware of their right to receive efficacious and effective dental therapies, and hence a text that brings context and understanding to a participatory partnership between patient and dentist. Choosing an eclectic approach to our synthesis of optimal care knowledge for caring for this special patient cohort, we invited leading international educators and scholars to join us in articulating the strongest case possible for understanding the edentulous predicament and its management. We are confident that the end result reflects an approach that never loses sight of the biological underpinnings of each patient’s unique situation. Moreover, the best current management of the edentulous predicament is now seen in a far broader and more rational context than past descriptions. This is because the educational and research focus in prosthodontics has continued to grow and evolve in the past near-decade since we published the 12th edition. Advances in dental materials and increased objectivity in the understanding of limitations of mechanical analogues for the masticatory system had already facilitated significant progress in the discipline. However, the single most compelling catalyst for change has been the technique of osseointegration. This ushered in an exciting new therapeutic era, especially for prosthetically maladaptive patients.

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