Linda Bartolomucci Boyd

DVC’s dental assisting professor Linda Bartolomucci Boyd has just published the fourth edition of her textbook, Dental Instruments: A Pocket Guide, with Elsevier-Saunders publishing company.

Boyd began teaching dental assisting part-time at DVC in 1985, and became a full time faculty member in 1990.

What prompted her to write the book?

“Back then, there was not a comprehensive textbook that was designated for dental assisting, dental hygiene and dental students to learn and study dental instruments,” she said. “I created the concept by attaching instruments with Velcro to a numbered laminated 5x7 card and placing them in a bin that designated the specialty of dentistry in which they were used. I then created a table which associated each numbered card with the name and function of each instrument.” It worked well, so she created the text in a similar manner.  

The first edition of the text was published in 2003, although Boyd began using it in her classes in the fall of 2002. Now in its fourth edition, it is used in the English version in Canada, and has also been translated into Spanish, Russian, Korean and other South Asian languages.

Boyd uses this book for all her classes, as do other instructors in the Registered Dental Assisting program. Boyd teaches Oral Facial Structures and Body Systems, Dental Operative Procedures and Advanced Operative Procedures, as well as Clinical Experience, where students intern at the University of the Pacific Dental School and then in private offices. 

“This text is utilized throughout the industry, and is designated not only for dental assisting programs, but for dental hygiene programs and dental schools throughout the nation and world wide,” she said.

“Dental technology continues to evolve,” Boyd said. “While basic dental instruments have remained relatively unchanged, design modifications have been made to accommodate new developments in the dental field, such as a change in the special coatings available on some instruments that allow them to be adapted to the different types of materials used in today’s dental practice. This text helps students, as well as employees in the dental office, master the identification and use of dental instruments, both common and specialty instruments.”