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With longing eyes the school medical service is looking to the Government
Dental Decay Committee to find the means by which the torrent of dental disease
may be stemmed at its source, and to the efforts of child welfare and maternity
centres, whereby, maybe, it will at some time be ensured that the teeth of the
children when formed in the gums during infancy will be strengthened to resist caries
and the burden of curative and palliative work, the brunt of which falls now almost
alone upon the school medical service, will be lightened.
In other respects also the returns show that as the children in school grow older
the incidence of defect decreases, and the school-leaving child is healthier and stronger
in every way than the child who enters. London children in 1927, as the figures
show, are better nourished, better cared for in personal cleanliness, and in better
health generally, than in any year within memory. This is due to the cumulatve
effect of wise social measures for children's care which have been introduced during
the past twenty years, and have been carried out with devotion alike by officials
and voluntary workers fired by the great enthusiasm which the love of children
cannot fail to engender.
The results already obtained afford sure ground for hope for the future of the
race. Fourteen hundred years ago the children of the south-eastern part of England
were famed throughout the civilised world for their beauty, their health and their
physique. The industrialisation and urbanisation of the 19th century, combined
with the pursuance of the policy of laissez-faire, sadly obscured the beauty of the
race's childhood. We are new in the process of emerging from that nightmare.
Given dwellings into which sunlight and air can enter, knowledge which will enable
them to choose right ways of living and opportunities for play and recreation in
the free and open air, the race will once again bloom as formerly in health and
physical excellence. Good housing, better education, playing fields, these three
are the dominant needs of the child and parent of England's great metropolis.
Already and increasingly, going into our schools, the improving appearance of our
London children brings back the echo of the words of Pope Gregory, "Non Angli
sed Angeli."
Dental Condition of School Children.
In the year 1906 the late Mr. C. E. Wallis, a man actuated by a sincere wish
to help mankind, especially those in poor circumstances, wrote a report to the Council
upon the state of the mouths and teeth of the school children in the Council's care.
This was the first detailed dental investigation made of London elementary school
children.
His examination was no mere casual glance, but an exact and careful investigation
of the teeth, gums, tonsils, throat and glands in each case, aided by dental
mirrors, probes and spatulae. At the "Michael Faraday" School, Walworth, he
so examined 245 children, who showed an average per child of 7.4 carious teeth;
9.3 per cent, suffered from abscesses of the jaw-bones, many discharging pus; 16.7
showed chronic pharyngitis; 29 per cent, chronic enlargement of the tonsils; while
no less than 61 per cent, had enlarged sub-maxillary lymphatic glands; 37 per cent,
of the children were anaemic. In his report he said—" The most striking feature
observed is the neglect of dental cleanliness, and absence of any evidence of dental
treatment, beyond a few instances in which teeth have been extracted or broken. Only
3 of these 245 children possessed tooth brushes, and showed signs of having used
them regularly, and these three were practically free from caries. Bacterial deposits,
tartar, remains of food and every degree of malodorousness and sepsis were evident.
Many children were suffering from undue retention of temporary teeth." Mr.
C. E. Wallis then described briefly the results of such foul mouths on the general
health, and the undermining of the child's natural resistance to disease. At the
same time Dr. Wm. Hunter, of Charing Cross Hospital, was showing scientifically that
local concentrated sepsis caused anaemia, and that removal of local sepsis cured this
15435 e 2
Dr. Livingston's
report
upon the
" Michael
Faraday"
School.