Sir, I am writing to report what appears to be inaccurate or misleading values within the article Special Care Dentistry (BDJ 2007; 202: 619–629).

With part of my work in dentistry over the past few years involving both children and adults with special needs I do not dispute the value of such service provision, however some of the statistics within this article appear either to be false or misleading. I hope it is an error produced in the editing and modifying of this document and not inaccurate data that have either been overlooked by the authors or reviewers of the article prior to acceptance for publication.

Page 620

'1. THE SIZE OF THE CHALLENGE

...In England and Wales, recent data indicate that almost 9.5 million people (18.2% of the population) self-report a long-term illness, health problem, or disability which limits their daily activities or work.18 Whilst self-reported morbidity must be viewed with some caution,20 the impact on society cannot be ignored as more than one in eight of these people (4.3 million) are of working age (16-64 for men and 16-59 for women).18'

The figures in this piece of text do not appear to add up. 'self reported morbidity' = 9.5 million; 'one in eight of these people' = 12.5%; 12.5% of 9.5 million = 1,187,500 people – whereas they then say 4.3 million.

Page 623

'CURRENT SERVICE PROVISION

a) Current workforce

...and only four of the 120 people (0.33%) attending the British Society of Gerodontology meeting in December 2004 were general dental practitioners.'

Four out of 120 x 100 = 3.33%, not 0.33% as reported in the article.

I appreciate that the production of statistics in reports is a difficult and time consuming task, but hope that these figures are purely a result of numerical accident rather than intentional over-estimation of the problem that the provision of special care dentistry services creates.

It also highlights the need for dental healthcare professionals to work closely with statisticians in the production of such reports.

Drs Jenny Gallagher and Janice Fiske respond: Our thanks to Dr Baldwin for his/her detailed reading of our paper and for drawing attention to the two points above which we shall address in turn.

First, in relation to the size of the challenge, we accept that the phrasing of one sentence in the published paper did not convey the intended meaning and apologise for any confusion. 'These people' refers to working age people, one in eight of whom self-reports morbidity. This relates to 4.3 million people and highlights the level of impact on society. To assist with clarity, we have revised the second sentence in the text below:

'In England and Wales, recent data indicate that almost 9.5 million people (18.2% of the population self-report a long term illness, health problem, or disability which limits their daily activities or work.18 Whilst self reported morbidity must be viewed with some caution,20 the impact on society cannot be ignored as more than one in eight people of working age (16-64 for men and 16-59 for women) have a self-reported morbidity; this amounts to 4.3 million people.18'

Second, regarding current service provision, you are correct that the decimal point was in the wrong place.

Thank you for enabling us to clarify and correct these points which in no way affect the size of the challenge outlined in the paper. We welcome your support in addressing the professional challenge of ensuring appropriate dental care for people with a wide range of disabilities. Building on existing models of good practice, Special Care Dentistry, working closely with GDPs, will play an important role in this process.