Sir.—We were pleased to read about the studies performed by Molteni and Bumstead1 concerning the effect of "soft" endotracheal tubes on the development and severity of palatal grooves in orally intubated newborns. We were surprised, however, that the number of infants in whom palatal grooves developed who were intubated less than seven days was so low. We wonder if the number of palatal grooves identified might have been greater if dental stone casts of the maxilla had been performed. It has been our experience that the clinical identification of a palatal groove is often difficult, especially in the very-low-birth-weight infant.2