The OHIP-14 is a valid and reliable measure of oral health-related quality of life in general dental practice and is responsive to third molar clinical change. The summary score method demonstrated performance as good as, or better than, the other methods studied.

million per annum 1 and around £22 million to the private sector. 2 The enormous number of teeth removed in the UK prompted researchers to assess the type of practice conducted here and in 1998 a study had estimated that around 20-30% of third molars that were removed in the UK did not fulfi l the American National Institutes of Health criteria for removal and were, therefore, removed prophylactically. 3 This was followed by the publication of guidelines by the NICE 4 and SIGN 5 on the management of impacted lower third molars and, possibly as a result, the number of impacted wisdom teeth removed in the UK started to fall. In addition, it is believed that changes in the legislation on the prescription of general anaesthesia have also resulted

Sea level is a key variable in the context of global climate change. Climate-induced variability is expected to affect not only the mean sea level but also the amplitude and phase of its seasonal cycle. This study addresses the changes in the amplitude and phase of the annual cycle of coastal sea level in the extra-tropical North Atlantic. The physical causes of these variations are explored by analysing the association between fluctuations in the annual amplitude of sea level and in ancillary parameters [atmospheric pressure, sea-surface temperature and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) winter index]. The annual cycle is extracted through autoregressive decomposition, in order to be able to separate variations in seasonality from long-term interannual variations in the mean. The changes detected in the annual sea level cycle are regionally coherent, and related to changes in the analysed forcing parameters. At the northern sites, fluctuations in the annual amplitude of sea level are associated with concurrent changes in temperature, while atmospheric pressure is the dominant influence for most of the sites on the western boundary. The state of the NAO influences the annual variability in the Southern Bight, possibly through NAO-related changes in wind stress and ocean circulation.

The study indicates that older patients are less likely to develop the symptoms studied. In addition the authors believe that there is evidence to suggest that general dental practitioners might not be following current guidelines when deciding whether or not to extract an impacted lower third molar in the centres studied.

group is in place to facilitate that (both our application and the action plan can be found on the school's website). One of the co-chairs of the group has done what is suggested by Professor Kay and taken part in two rounds of application assessment -without doubt, both here in Bristol and nationally, there is evidence that good employment practice is increasing for women who are working in STEM subjects in both higher education and research.