Sir, the letter from Mr Parker and the response to it from Professor Avery et al. (BDJ 2005; 199: 405, 407) both refer to the vacancy survey carried out by the BDA's Central Committee for Hospital Dental Services (CCHDS). It is perhaps helpful to clarify the background to this. At a meeting of the full CCHDS, held in Sheffield on 12 November 2004, considerable concern was expressed from several quarters at the large number of unfilled consultant posts in the dental specialties across the UK — especially in the fields of orthodontics and oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS). The existence of a number of unfilled Specialist Registrar posts in OMFS was also noted at that stage, possibly attributable to the drop-out rate from the specialty following the introduction of the mandatory second primary degree.

It was, therefore, decided that a national survey would be carried out whereby all the elected regional representatives of CCHDS reported, by email, any posts that were currently unfilled or expected to become vacant over the coming year (large numbers of retirements are anticipated across the NHS in 2005-6, as consultants reach their optimum pension eligibility).

The first results were completed by the end of December 2004. At a meeting I had with the Chief Dental Officer for England on 10 January 2005, the CDO (Professor Raman Bedi) requested sight of the details of our survey results, and these were duly provided.

Subsequently, the survey has been intermittently repeated, with the most recent version (July 2005) still reporting significant levels of vacancies.

It is true, of course, that any such survey can only be a snapshot of the situation at any given moment and that change can take place rapidly. However, the level of unfilled vacancies apparent within the hospital dental specialties continues to be a cause for concern.