Letter: Financing fillings

THE HEALTH department recommends that dental amalgam fillings should be avoided in pregnant women (report, 30 April). Unfortunately, except in exceptional circumstances, amalgam is the only durable material which the NHS is prepared to pay for in the restoration of carious teeth in a pregnant patient. This latest recommendation makes a mockery of the principle of providing free dental care to women in pregnancy.

It would be appropriate for the Secretary of State to sanction inclusion of the use of composite filling materials in NHS general dental practitioners' fees where they are used in pregnancy.

DR J A HASSAN BDS

Diss, Norfolk