Sir, recently I was asked to examine the children of a family new to my practice. Before I examined the four-year-old daughter, the mother told me that she (the daughter) had been born with her two lower centrals erupted and that these had been extracted in the local hospital at the insistence of (presumably) the paediatrician, much against the mother's wishes. Indeed the mother had been told that she would not be allowed home until this had been done! I explained to her that this had been totally unnecessary (the child was bottle fed, so there was no difficulty with feeding) and she was thankful to have an opinion which agreed with hers. I made it clear to her that I was horrified to learn that this was being done in the year 2000.

Surely this barbaric and needless practice is no longer part of paediatric teaching in this country? Have any other practitioners come across it in the recent past? Perhaps those in the profession with influence in this area should ensure that it ceases. This attractive four-year-old girl has been left with two missing lower A's marring an otherwise perfect deciduous dentition, for no good reason and the mother has been left to explain this to health visitors and nursery staff, who assume that they were lost through caries. The mother was naturally relieved to learn that this will not result in the absence of her daughter's permanent lower centrals.