Sir, I'm afraid I write to you at this most merry time of year to draw your attention to a much more sobering issue. A great deal has been made of the damaging and erosive nature of sour and novelty sweets in your journal recently.1 However, you make little reference to something which is widely discussed in my December waiting rooms and seems to me to be an annual plaque-inducing confectionery craze: the 'Nutcracker Sweet'.

Whilst I've yet to encounter these 'delights' in person, I'm told they were first imported from Russia by a man called Tchaikovsky some 200 years ago and apparently remain popular at this festive time: the sweet seems to be associated with a twinkling (and decidedly lengthy!) jingle and dancing fairies, and is plugged relentlessly in the media. Now they have seemingly become one of the nation's firm festive favourites during the Christmas period. Despite this, however, there has been a startling lack of research or even willingness to address what I'm convinced is responsible for the large rise in dental caries treatments required in children in the months following Christmas.

Its advocates cite the sweet's heritage and role in our Christmas culture as genuine reasons to continue promoting this decay-inducing detritus. I have even heard murmurings of a new product line, something that will be apparently be marketed as 'Sugar Plum Fairies' in the coming months. Bah humbug I say! Dentistry has a collective responsibility to raise awareness and limit the damage to our patients at what, I'm sure you'll agree, is a particularly stressful time of year for the profession.

I am confident that by bringing this matter to your attention, we can both inform the general public of the hidden dangers posed by regular consumption of this 'Nutcracker Sweet', and secondly, be able to implement some effective form of control and regulation surrounding yet another imported festive blight.

Important note to readers

This content has been created for the entertainment of readers in the spirit of seasonal good humour and, on the whole, possesses not an ounce of truth. All persons, products, URLs and email addresses mentioned have been invented by the BDJ Editorial Team.