The aim of this book is to provide a basis for the understanding of how medical and surgical conditions influence oral health and oral health care, and to help dental health workers (DHWs) keep their patients informed of health risks and respect their choices.

Learning outcomes are for DHWs to be aware of systemic disorders and treatments that may cause complications in dental and oral health care. The reader should thus be able to understand relevant illness identified from the history, physical examination and investigations; be able to present a succinct and, where appropriate, unified list of all problems that could influence oral health care; and formulate a diagnosis/treatment plan for each problem (appropriate to the level of training). The reader should understand that the management of patients with diseases should take into consideration the severity of the condition; the type of operative procedure envisioned and, in particular, the amount of trauma, likely distress and time taken; other risk factors; and the health-care setting (skills/facilities) available. 

The reader should also be able to communicate appropriately and work with other health-care providers; to retrieve medical information using the recommended further reading sections and the Internet, in a manner that reflects an understanding of medical language, termin-ology, and the relationship between medical terms and concepts; to refine search strategies to improve the relevance and completeness of retrieved items; and to identify and acquire full-text electronic docu-ments available from the Internet sites quoted.