Sir, I refer to the article 'Perception of studying dental law and ethics among postgraduate dental students in the UK' published in this Journal (BDJ 2015;219: 131–134).

I graduated, in 1993 having undertaken one of the first law and ethics in medicine courses in the UK at the University of Glasgow.

Unlike my experience of the BDS course, the law and ethics course required me to actually have to think about contentious issues and, at least try to, formulate an opinion about a broad range of 'medical', as opposed to specifically, 'dental' subjects mentioned in the article.

I firmly believe that a broad approach, including experience of such subjects, helps one to appreciate and better understand many areas of the subject such as patient autonomy, rights, consent etc.

A better understanding of the whole area must, of course, lead to better relationships between patient and clinician, but none of these issues, eg consent and confidentiality, is a 'stand alone' subject and, while not including the 'medical' topics may shorten a course, I consider that they should be included in order that the individual can develop a fuller awareness of the whole subject.

1. Aberdeen