An inevitable part of any educational process with an end point that involves handling people must at some time require the student to prove that he or she is capable of dealing with the real thing; the living, breathing (however irregularly) very-present specimen of humanity. And so it is with dentistry too. We end up with that quaint shuffling, rather awkward game variously called a patient viva or a history taking exercise or a plethora of other terms, which actually provides a thin adjective of a veil over what is a slightly dubious form of parlour charades.
