Sir, we congratulate Jada Britton and Natalie Bradley on their inspiring and enthusiastic opinion paper on special care dentistry (SCD).1 All three of us have great admiration for dentists and dental care professionals (DCPs) who practise SCD and their approach to undertaking appropriate routine dentistry on patients who have challenging needs. We echo the authors' observations that they are adaptable, performing demanding work with determination and expertise.

However, from our recent research2,3 as well as at the University of Portsmouth Dental Academy, SCD clinicians also play a significant role in the education of hygiene therapy (HT) students in gerodontology. In HT schools, the theoretical content of gerodontology was delivered through lectures (92.3%); in 53.8%, this was accompanied by seminars and in a smaller number of schools through information embedded in other courses (38.5%) and e-learning (30.8%). Some schools also reported the use of workshops, clinical placement visits and case-based learning (61.9% response rate from UK schools responsible for training dental hygiene therapy students, n = 13 out of 24 schools). Clinical gerodontology teaching was embedded in SCD (80%), with lesser amounts in restorative dentistry (70%), and in approximately half of schools, it was also taught within community dentistry (50%) and periodontology (40%).

Further, in the qualitative arm of the research,3 participants generally shared the notion that patients in care homes may initially need input and care planning from a special care dentist; however, a few were concerned that this speciality is already over-committed with other patient groups. One participant stated 'specialists should only be treating the very complicated…and they should be…overseeing treatment plans etc, for others but in terms of special care dentistry…especially on its own, managing this problem, it would not touch the sides'.

Dental professionals with a passion and skill in SCD have clearly inspired young dentists,1 but they are also making a considerable contribution to the education of DCPs in gerodontology. DCPs are increasingly contributing to the UK dental workforce and will have to provide care to the growing number of older dentate adults in the UK.