Current Concepts in the Management of Pathologic Conditions

Her complaint, heard hundreds of times per day in oral surgery practice, highlights the need for definitive guidance in our approach to management of the third molar. Should all third molars be removed? Only the symptomatic ones? And what is third molar pathology anyway? Fortunately, increasing numbers of welldesigned studies have provided insight into areas of pathologic abnormality encountered by each of us on a regular basis. This issue was conceived to highlight advances in knowledge, review difficultto-manage conditions, and introduce the reader to new technologies that will impact the health of our patients, now and in the future. Some of the articles published here discuss conditions commonly seen in daily practice; others present current understanding of less regularly encountered disease, and a few shine light on innovations so new that they are––at present–– available in only a few teaching centers. Each will provide information valuable to surgical practice, and I encourage you to read every one of them. You won’t be disappointed. As guest editor, I extend my appreciation to each of the authors represented in this volume. It is no