Sir, what a delightful article by Sharif Islam1 about the very humble ‘cotton wool roll'. It is now over 50 years since I first with tweezers picked up my first cotton wool roll and as I studied one today in my surgery, I realised that the design and shape has not altered over all that time. Every aspect of dental equipment and materials have all evolved over time except our little white friend which let's face it, is still probably the cheapest item in our whole surgery. As the writer said, ‘thank you so much, cotton wool roll'.