Dear Readers, You may be astonished to find an editorial in OHPD, since it is our policy not to publish editorials in order to save the allocated space for publishing scientific manuscripts. But science may generate controversy, which must be discussed within the scientific community. Sometimes such discussions are triggered by letters to the editor. Earlier this year, OHPD received a letter to the editor arguing about a fluoride measurement method (see below). As good publishing practice, we sent this letter to the authors of the criticised paper and asked them to reply. Now we have received their answer, which we are printing as well (see next pages). The editorial team is convinced that this policy helps to improve the quality of research reports, and this is why we decided to use the space to make this discussion available to our readers.