Sir, I was interested to read the article by Bussell and Graham (BDJ 2008; 205: 505–508) in which they asked for information on the origin of Couplands' chisels. During the 1970s I visited an oral surgery practice in Ottawa, Ontario, where one of the partners was Dr James P. Coupland. I understand that James Coupland's cousin, Douglas Charles William Coupland, had developed the chisels/gouges during the 1920s.

Douglas Coupland had qualified at the Royal College of Dental Surgeons in Toronto in 1922 and worked in dental practice in Sudbury for two years. He studied exodontia at the Mayo Clinic and then set up an oral surgery practice in Ottawa. Douglas Coupland proved to be very successful and by 1930 his cousin James Coupland had joined him as an associate. In the same year Douglas Coupland was President of the Eastern Ontario Dental Association and became president of the Ottawa Dental Society in 1932. Tragically, he died of the complications of mitral stenosis in 1936, at the age of 35.

During the 1920s or early 1930s Douglas Coupland had negotiated with Hugo Friedman, whose firm Hu-Friedy later manufactured the chisels, initially as a set of eight or 12 (soon reduced to three). The firm also produced surgical suckers designed by Dr Coupland. In 1983 I received a letter from one of Douglas Coupland's sons, who stated that his father's greatest contribution had been the aspirators with interchangeable tips, rather than the chisels (Dr Coupland had two sons, both of whom studied dentistry).

Messrs Hu-Friedy wrote to me in 1983 stating that they thought that the Couplands' instruments had been in production since the early 1930s. In a letter from Down's Surgical dated 5 May 1987, Geoffrey Down stated that Couplands' chisels had first appeared in the 1935 edition of the Down's Catalogue.

In spite of having only 13 years of clinical practice, Douglas Charles William Coupland seems to have achieved a considerable amount. As a retired maxillofacial surgeon, I can confirm that Couplands' chisels were of enormous value throughout my practising lifetime.