Sir, we have the great good fortune of working in a profession which can make a real difference to people's quality of life. I would be grateful for the opportunity to share this 'good news' story with your readers.

Recently a patient came to me with a history of severe chronic pain for eight years. Teeth which had been identified as the source of the pain had been rootfilled bringing no relief from the pain. They had then been removed, but still brought no relief from the pain.

After five years she was referred to the Chronic Pain Clinic and was given a MRI scan which diagnosed a 'compressed trigeminal nerve'. She underwent an operation to the base of her skull to relive this 'compression' only to awake to the same symptoms as before but now she had the additional problem of intractable pain across the whole of the other side of her face, down the neck and arm on that other side. For two years the CPC tried to diagnose her trouble and have come up with 'atypical facial pain'. She understandably arrived in my practice in a distressed state of despair.

Palpation of all muscles of the head and neck produced moderate to severe sensitivity. Intra-orally the restorative and periodontal state of her mouth was healthy.

Having undertaken training with Bill Comcowich and Roy Higson on the principles and application of occlusion, I noticed that she had a very slight discrepancy between centric occlusion (CO) and centric relation (CR). With nothing for the patient to lose but her pain I recommended that I make her a Lucia Jig to wear at night and then I would review her after two night's use. Two days later a transformed lady walked into the practice.

Since wearing the Lucia Jig she has had no pain and has needed no painkillers! Her whole demeanour has changed and she looks wonderfully relieved to feel happy with life for the first time in years. Now starts the meticulous process of correctly identifying her centric relation and then equillibrating her teeth so that CO=CR.

It is on days like these that one realises what a huge privilege we have, through our diligence, to be able to transform another person's quality of life.