Sir, in your recent editorial (BDJ 2011; 211: 99) you expressed your surprise at the number of non-UK EEA dentists that are registered. I share your surprise. This has only happened because successive governments have not had proper manpower planning targets for dentistry (and medicine?) and as a result we have not trained enough of our own. Whatever opinion people hold regarding the non-UK EEA dentists the fact is without them there would be a shortage and this country would be the worse for it. On the other hand, if we had trained enough of our own, there would not have been vacancies and the Europeans probably would not have been attracted to this country in quite the same way. And can their countries of origin really afford to train dentists for us? The only conclusion I can draw is that in spite of what they tell us over many years our governments have let the NHS down by not ensuring that there are enough training places in this country.