Sir, the authors of Contemporary dental practice in the UK in 2008 (BDJ 2012; 212: 63–67) offer a fascinating insight into some key aspects of general practice and speculate on why there appears to be a 'gulf' between what is taught to undergraduates in dental school and what is practised on the high street.

There are of course a number of reasons why evidence-based practice has not found its way into the mouths of general practice patients including time constraints (real or perceived) of the remuneration system, habit, resistance to change, costs to the patient and a lack of knowledge or engagement with CPD other than that obtained online.

The real message should be: whatever the cause of the gulf, undergraduates should be prepared for their DF1 year. Teaching the use of composites for example, almost to the exclusion of understanding that amalgam is used widely in practice (75% for permanent molars according to the study), is a disservice to this generation of students. Knowing how to build marginal ridges in amalgam, undercutting existing amalgams to repair broken molar cusps and dare I say it, knowing that sometimes, just occasionally, a well placed pin is not the slippery slope to the devil's lair, is something all undergraduates would benefit from before facing the realities of an NHS practice in an inner city area.