Simon Levy, the Commercial Manager at PasTest Ltd, responds: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond. Naturally we take all comments regarding our books extremely seriously, and I can confirm that we received Libby Morris's letter earlier this year and have already investigated her concerns.

Firstly we did write to Ms Morris in March 2006 to acknowledge her comments and assured her that we would pass them to the book's authors, which we duly did.

We contacted the book's authors regarding the comments raised and they have accepted the errors with the chart diagrams, the FDI chart and the reference to an LL9 as described by Ms Morris. This response was forwarded on to Ms Morris, explaining that the appropriate amends would be made at the next printing of this book. We are genuinely sorry for these errors and that Ms Morris appears not to have received this reply.

However, we view Ms Morris's comments regarding the photographs as unfair particularly since Vital's original review of the book described the photographs as being excellent. We also feel that Ms Morris's comments regarding extraction aftercare are over-elaborated. To quote the Levison text – of which Ms Morris is highly in praise (see box left).

Even the Levison text does not elaborate on the advice as Ms Morris suggests.

Vital's original review was from Michelle Brindley, the President of the BADN and who is totally independent of PasTest. In her review she wrote, ‘Overall this would be an extremely useful textbook for student dental nurses following a training pathway leading to registration. The key areas are well covered, with excellent photographs showing some of the less known equipment.’

We welcome constructive feedback from our readers and fully intend to correct the errors identified. We have over 30 years' experience of producing best-selling books and we have helped tens of thousands of junior doctors to pass their professional exams. The response to Essential guide to dental nursing has been extremely positive and the British Dental Association has described it as ‘A beautifully-written work that any DCP undertaking NVQ3 units would be well advised to read.’

Please SEND YOUR LETTERS to:

The Editor, Vital, BDJ Editorial, Nature Publishing Group, 4-6 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW or email vitaleditorial@nature.com

Write to us for our summer 2007 issue and you could be the lucky winner of our Star Letter writer competition. You will then be the proud owner of a collection of Beverly Hills Formula dental whitening products (£100 RRP), including Beverly Hills Formula Active 10 toothpaste and a luxurious bathrobe. For further information see www.beverlyhillsformula.com.

Letters may be edited for reasons of space. Opinions expressed in reader letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of the editorial team or the publishers.