Introduction For many years, the dental profession has collected extracted human teeth for use in education and research. Since the enactment of the Human Tissue Act (HTA) in 2006, we have observed a fall in research outputs from the United Kingdom utilising extracted teeth for research.

Aims To determine the working knowledge and understanding of the HTA of dentists in the UK who could potentially collect extracted teeth for use in teaching and research.

Design A postal/online questionnaire.

Materials and methods A printed questionnaire and pre-paid return envelope, which sought to assess both the knowledge and understanding of the participants concerning the HTA as it applied to the collection of extracted teeth, was mailed out to 500 UK-registered dentists. The potential participants were selected at random from the General Dental Council online registers.

Results A total of 254 completed questionnaires were received (response rate = 50.8%). Prior to September 2006, 65.6% of respondents had collected teeth. After this, only 37.8% did so. This was statistically significant (P <0.001).

Conclusions Confusion surrounded the collection and use of extracted teeth, which hampered dental education and research. To address this, there is a need for clarity on the legal issues.

简介多年来，牙科行业已经收集了提取的人类牙齿，用于教育和研究。自2006年《人类组织法》（HTA）颁布以来，我们注意到英国使用拔牙技术进行研究的研究产出有所下降。

目的确定英国牙医的工作知识和对HTA的理解，他们可能会收集拔出的牙齿用于教学和研究。

设计邮政/在线调查表。

材料和方法一份印刷的问卷和预付的回邮信封，旨在评估参与者对HTA的知识和理解，因为HTA应用于收集拔牙，并已邮寄给500位在英国注册的牙医。潜在的参与者是从总牙科委员会在线登记册中随机选择的。

结果共收到254份问卷调查问卷，回答率为50.8％。在2006年9月之前，有65.6％的受访者拔牙。此后，只有37.8％这样做。这具有统计学意义（P <0.001）。

结论混乱困扰着拔牙的收集和使用，从而妨碍了牙科教育和研究。为了解决这个问题，需要澄清法律问题。