Sir, in response to the letter in your columns by Anthony Townsend, representing the policy of the GDC regarding the ARF, I feel it necessary to make the following comments.

In nearly all walks of life it is considered that retired pensioners over the age of 65 do deserve certain financial concessions, bearing in mind that whatever the level of pension income, it is fairly fixed in any particular year, and, unlike full or part-time working GDPs, cannot be increased except by going back into dental practice.

The concessions given are many, welcome, and well deserved by a hard working dentist, who has, as in my own case, put in over 44 years at the 'coal-face'. It is now considered to be accepted that one can expect free prescriptions, bus passes, reduced entry to almost any public building/exhibition and reduced subscriptions to clubs and organisations, including the BDA (£82pa instead of £380pa). I have even found that when skiing in both Europe and North America, discounts as high as 40% are available to the over 65's for what are normally very expensive ski-lift passes!

It might come as a big surprise to our dental profession that GMPs etc who have reached 65 and over and keep up to date can keep their registration going for free! In view of the huge shortage of dentists in the UK and the great lengths that the authorities are going to in order to attract the retired and other categories of non-practising dentists back to work, why on earth has the GDC imposed this draconian ARF?

I for one, will not be renewing my registration and will effectively have my name erased from the register. What testimony to 44 years of service to the community!

Sir, I was a qualified dentist practising for 42 years after qualifying at the RDH, which incidentally was closed because of a glut of dentists.

I now find that I too am no longer on the register because I did not pay the nearly £400 requested. This is after my 60 years being on it – in part as an RAF dentist and then in private practice working as described by Dr Webster, (BDJ 2004, 197: 63) for a mere financial pittance under the NHS.

I find it cruel and heartless that this came about. It is absolutely unnecessary because in no way could we practise any more because of age and necessary annual attendance at courses.

It is absolutely cruel and all who read this should realise that this could happen to them and persuade the powers that be – the GDC – to change their mind and allow the older dentists to remain on the register after a lifetime of dentistry. When I remonstrated in a letter to them, no reply was received.