Sir, with regard to the loss of dentures, nothing much seems to have changed over the last 20 years. The investigation by Mann and Doshi (Br Dent J 2017:223: 435–438) of denture loss in hospitals in Kent, Surrey and Sussex concludes that consideration needs to be given by hospitals to find ways to reduce the number of dentures lost every year and stresses the financial burden on the NHS.

They are indeed correct in their conclusions but it should also be noted that whilst this is annoying for the staff and a financial burden to the NHS it is also of greater consequence, and can be quite distressing, to the patient. This is especially true for the elderly who are usually less adaptable and have difficulty in learning to control new dentures.

I wrote an article for the Nursing Times1 in which I pointed out that the internal referral records of a large university hospital showed that of 286 consultations for denture problems over 30 months, 79 were because of lost dentures. The age range for this group was 24–100 and most were from geriatric and psychogeriatric wards, although a number had been misplaced in general wards and in casualty and the radiology department.

The importance of marking dentures with the patient's name or code number is often not appreciated. Although it is not possible to say how many of the dentures misplaced in hospital could be returned to their owners if the dentures had been marked, those found in ward bathrooms or returned from the laundry after being discovered in pyjama pockets or among sheets certainly could be. Ideally all dentures should be marked in the laboratory during construction but if not temporary marking can be done on admittance to hospital using a denture marking kit or at the simplest level, with a permanent marker pen. A simple denture marking system was described in 1986.2