Sir, as a general practitioner of quite longstanding in a predominantly NHS practice, I was interested to read the article Restoration of a partially edentulous patient with combination partial dentures (Br Dent J 2019; 226: 407-410) as I was hoping it would be of relevance to my practice. Though no mention of the cost of such an appliance was made, I suspect the materials used would have meant it would have been made under a private contract - sadly not of much relevance to the majority of my patients.

It made me consider whether any of the excellently written and illustrated case history articles that are published in your journal could ever be done under the NHS.