The paper reports the dental status of a cohort of Royal Air Force (RAF) recruits in 1988 and details the work required to render and maintain them dentally fit for their first 5 years in the service. The mean DMFT (7.3) at inspection in 1988 increased by 0.8 whilst the mean number of restorations placed was 4.0. Endodontic therapy was required by 13.4 percent of the recruits and crowns were provided for 9.6 percent. The recruits required twice as many restorations in their first year in the service to render them dentally fit as were required in any subsequent year to maintain fitness, this work needed 58 minutes of dental officers' time in their first year and 43 minutes per year thereafter. The number of dentists seen or courses of treatment undertaken did not have a significant effect on the number of restorations provided. The prevalence and incidence of caries in this group appeared to justify the RAF's policy of annual inspections but the number of carious lesions which did not progress far enough to require restoration after 5 years indicated that a preventive approach to treatment planning is important to avoid overtreatment.