Sir, I was interested to read Stephen Hancocks' recent editorial Taking a life (BDJ 2014; 216: 47) on the very sad topic of suicide. As he remarks, 'frustratingly perhaps there are a variety of opinions, much speculation and lots of myths'.

I thought Stephen might be interested in an early paper entitled Mortality and occupational diseases of dental surgeons.1 This paper too acknowledges the myths that surround the statements about the health problems of dentists and the difficulty in compiling accurate statistics. Apart from a brief mention that 'suicide is reported as being very frequent among medical men, and dentists are nearly as bad' the paper doesn't go into any further details on this topic. It concentrates on what it regards as the four classes of occupational diseases affecting dental surgeons – those related to posture, those due to infection, those associated with the nervous system and those due to drugs. Whilst recognising the stresses arising from dealing with patients and with those 'irritating moments when things go wrong', the author is happily able to conclude that 'ours is a healthy occupation. We are leading a life which is not fraught with danger and which should not incapacitate us unduly and preclude the possibility of a healthy old age'.

Interestingly, the writer paid special thanks to Lillian Lindsay, who by then was Hon Librarian of the BDA, for the help she provided with references and statistics.

The paper1 was given by Cyril H. Howkins as his presidential address to the section of odontology at the RSM on 28 October 1935.