Sir, having acted as an expert witness in general dentistry on behalf of the defence team for several registrants in hearings at the General Dental Council in the last few years, I feel moved to comment on how distressing this situation is, obviously particularly for the registrant, but also for those of us involved with him/her at the hearing. Those registrants with whom I have been associated have been living with the threat of losing their livelihood, sometimes for two or three years. The stress, depression and personal problems that this causes are truly awful. Many seem to feel very isolated because of the humiliation they feel. It is difficult for them to see that and realistically their situation seems to me to be one in which any dentist might find themselves.

The standards by which we, as reasonable and competent dentists, are judged are those of absolute perfection and I would defy any general practice dentist to say that he or she could always meet these, especially retrospectively. I also believe that the vast majority try hard to do so in a challenging environment in which the goalposts are constantly moving.

Having come away feeling as though I was involved in a modern-day version of 'Wolf Hall', I cannot but think that there must be many occasions when dentists should not need to go through such rigorous investigation so that, as so frequently happens, s/he is found to have learnt from their mistakes and be free to go back to work without sanctions.

1. Longfield, Kent