Sir, the paper by M. Syrimi and N. Ali (BDJ 2015,218: 597–598) was an interesting review of stereopsis in clinical practice as was the observation that it was not deemed essential in operative dentistry. I was surprised the authors did not comment on the fact that if one uses a mirror to view the operative site then one is using monocular vision of the operative area. Most dentists master the art of working in a monocular view with a mirror during their undergraduate days. So whilst stereopsis has a significant role in developing hand eye co-ordination a major part of operative dentistry is practised with monocular vision without problems for perhaps 50% of clinical activity.

1. Bristol