Sir, having recently permitted a pleasant 15-year-old girl to observe me on work experience, while I frantically attempt to accumulate UDAs in general practice, I asked her what I thought would be a simple question — 'What is the hard outer shell of a tooth called?'

Alas, the answer of enamel was not forthcoming. So I asked my 40-year-old taxi driver patient if he knew — also no idea. Then I asked my recently appointed 17-year-old dental nurse if there was any hope of salvaging the situation, and rejoice she remembered. Unfortunately this was only because I had to tell her when she first started over a month ago. They had never even heard of dentine or pulp.

The work experience student hastened to add that she had never been taught tooth structure in school, and neither had my dental nurse. She also told me she could name every component of a blast furnace without a second's breath. I have a vague memory of when I was about eight or nine years old of being shown a diagram of a tooth in science class.

Surely this issue raises an obvious question – why doesn't this get taught in schools? It saddens me that a bright girl from a good home, who goes to a respected comprehensive school in Cardiff, had no idea about teeth despite saying she wants to be a dentist. Surely there is no hope for children from a more deprived background? Isn't it obvious that this is where oral health education and promotion should start – by actually teaching our kids in schools the fundamentals about teeth, therefore helping them understand the causes of tooth decay? At least this country will never have a problem producing steel, and it shows taxi drivers don't know everything.