Sir, it was a pleasure to read the useful article by Dr Gahan and Professor Walmsley concerning 'The neutral zone impression revisited' (BDJ 2005; 198: 269). Without wishing to carp I note that the photograph in figure 6 shows that the wax up is significantly away from the plaster “lingual index”. My feeling is that this technique is significantly improved if the neutral zone impression shaping is taken as being absolutely correct.

This often results in the teeth being set to contact the labial aspect of the plaster index, but with all the space lingual to the teeth being filled with wax and subsequently acrylic. In this way the stability of the denture is much improved by ensuring there is contact of soft tissues all the way round the denture rather than just round the denture bases.

This is a most useful technique for making complete dentures more stable, especially in difficult denture cases. However I do feel that it is the filling of this whole area of the neutral zone shape, which contributes to its success. I do absolutely agree that the taking of the neutral zone at the correct occlusal vertical dimension is frequently the secret of success of this technique.