Comment: the genesis of minimal cavity design

I was interested to read your recent editorial (Dent Update 2019; 46: 705–706) detailing the valuable contribution of Professor Elderton to conservative dentistry.

In the mid to late 1970s, Dr Elderton (or tricky Dicky as we referred to him) was a popular conservative dentistry teacher at the Royal London Hospital, where he taught my friends in his tutorial group and inspired many of the rest of us with his beautiful, minimal preparations. His concepts and enthusiasm for tissue preservation have stayed with us ever since.

Once on the clinic I proudly asked another lecturer to inspect my ‘minimal MO cavity preparation‘. He scornfully informed me that there was ‘no such thing’ and that I should go away and not return until I had made it much bigger!

I learned a lot about dentistry from that …