15 MARCH 1946, Page 14

" ANCILLARY DENTISTS "

SIR,—The hygienic aspect of the matter was barely touched on in your most disturbing article. During the last war my dentist had a young woman patient whom he knew and whose mouth on examination showed symptoms of syphilis. Knowing that the patient could not have acquired it in the normal way, he was aghast and mistrustful of his own diagnosis. It was, however, confirmed by a neighbouring medical man. And further inquiries showed that she had been to an unqualified dentist (known to the present writer for his lack of cleanliness) and that this man had been attending to Portuguese prisoners of war then in the neighbourhood.