Sir, I wish to address T. Kilcoyne's letter1 in which he asked me to apologise for stating that Fastbraces' advertising has been found by anybody to be misleading whilst also he also claimed that Fastbraces' claims follow evidence-based medicine.

I did not reply at the time as I felt it inappropriate to comment in detail on Advertising Standards Association (ASA) findings that were yet to be made public.

As of 8 March 2017, the ASA have published on their website (www.asa.org.uk) their final ruling on two dental practices that copied claims from Fastbraces' promotional literature onto their own practice websites.

The ASA found that this Fastbraces' advertising (which made claims about faster treatment, less painful treatment and less root resorption in comparison to other fixed appliance treatment) was 'misleading'. The ruling stated that these claims should not appear again in UK advertising without 'adequate substantiation' as a 'sufficient body of evidence' does not exist to justify them. There were 'significant methodological flaws' in the evidence that was provided to justify the Fastbraces' claims.

I feel that it is important for BDJ readers to realise that repeating the 'alternative facts' within the promotional literature of the Fastbraces company could lead to them falling foul of ASA and GDC standards.

I hope this will put an end to the matter and we can all accept that certain orthodontic systems are not magical and that competent dentists performing high quality orthodontic treatment is something we can all support.