Sir, it was heartening to see an important area of the spectrum of training offered to novice dentists getting some exposure as part of the excellent cover photographic series in the Journal (BDJ 2015;219[10], November 27).

Although a distance from the 1894 setup of the pioneering Oswald Fergus in this respect, we have in most schools and facilities still some way to go to really simulate away from the live patient, the situation that leads to practised and effective close support dentistry delivered by and involving a dentist and nurse/assistant. Most skills rooms feature manikin heads for single operator use.

Leading up to the opening in mid-2015 of the splendid new Education Centre at Morriston Hospital Swansea and as part of the available facilities the decision was made to build a clinical skills simulation room with 'dual facility' in this respect, in that individual benches would be about 1.8 metres in width to accommodate the appropriate stools for dentist and nurse for all disciplines (Fig. 1).

Figure 1
figure 1

The dual facility within the clinical skills simulation room at Morriston Hospital Swansea

Full size image

Since its inception it has been used effectively to teach a spectrum of techniques from routine conservative procedures to more complex endodontics involving microscopy to teams and all including nurse participation.

This has led in the main to some resoundingly positive feedback from participants who have ranged from DF1 status new dentists to hardened practitioners with established 'bad habits'. I have no unequivocal evidence that such training leads to a better patient experience or a hike in quality but I remain convinced that 'on the balance of probabilities' dual training in such a fashion will have a positive impact on the task performance of dentist and close support nurse.

Are there many such facilities in the UK, and if not why not?