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May I please have the opportunity to reply to Margaret Ross's letter (Summer 05, Star Letter).

The comparisons she makes between the world of dentistry and medicine in their use of complementary professions is sound in theory but in practice is wholly inappropriate.

The ratio of oral health practitioners (as she describes them) to dentists is very very small whereas the ratio of nurses to doctors is very high, therefore for there to be any real expectation of real impact on our current problems is ridiculous.

I should also like to take this opportunity to express concern that, laudable as they are, any preoccupation with career development and expansion of any of the dental team is a distraction from the real need for improving oral health with the resources we have now.

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