Sir, it was interesting to read the letter to the editor in this Journal on gloves by J. Limeres, M. Diniz and P. Diz1 and the original article, 'Glove wearing an assessment of evidence' also in the British Dental Journal by J Mew.2

Gloves are no different than condoms. They take the pleasure out of dentistry. Young people do not know anything better because they have never worked without gloves.

Specialisation in dentistry has increased because of loss of tactile sensation. The overall standard of dentistry has gone down. The number of gold and silver restorations has gone down because they require skill. The number of resin and glass-ionomer restorations has increased because these restorations are held in place by bonding techniques.

When the instruments are hot, gloves interfere with sense of touch and patients can be harmed. Because of lack of tactile sensation there is more chance of needle stick injury. The instruments and appliances like crowns and inlays can slip out of hand more easily while wearing gloves.

It is very difficult to use root canal instruments such as hand reamers and files with the gloves. Locating the apex while wearing gloves is very difficult. More and more patients are being referred to the specialist oral surgeons for extraction of teeth.

Recently there were headlines on the front page of Sunday Express dated 25 October, 2015, 'Fillings rot your teeth.' The original article on which the headlines were based was, 'Risk factors for caries development on tooth surfaces adjacent to newly placed class II composites – a practice based study'.3 Most of the similar studies of damage to adjacent teeth have only been done since 1990. While preparing a class II cavity because of lack of tactile sensation while wearing gloves, it is easy to damage the adjacent tooth.

There was not a single study carried out comparing working with the gloves and working without the gloves.