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additional new cases were presented although 6,000 only were expected. For this
the excellent and continuous work of the care committees is largely responsible; at
the same time evidence is accumulating that dread of visiting the dental surgeon is
diminishing. A total of 138,280 new cases was admitted to the dental centres under
the Council's scheme; of these 40,209 at some time previously had been treated
and discharged as completed cases. Compared with previous years the number of
temporary teeth found unsaveable and therefore requiring extraction shows a very
slight increase, while as pointed out above, there is a definite fall in the incidence of
gross decay of the permanent teeth. Here it must be noted that the administration
of anaesthetics has kept equal pace with the necessity for extractions, and the dental
surgeons exercise the greatest care that operations shall be ' painless,' so assisting
to overcome the dislike for dental treatment that is so widespread.
"The dental surgeons placed in position, thus preventing further decay, a total
of 115,904 fillings, and the average of fillings amounting to 892 for each 1,000
children treated is well maintained.
"There was a slight but distinct fall in diseases of the gums. The use of the
toothbrush, coarse diet, and general good hygiene, are helping to stem the tide of
disease under this heading.
"Although on the whole considerable improvement is reported, much remains
to be done in the prevention of disease and in treatment of the mouth and teeth.
More facilities are needed and it is still necessary to teach the parents the importance
of healthy teeth to the whole organism of the child. Here it should be noted that
another area—North Hammersmith—has been provided with a dental treatment
centre during the year, and moreover, the Eastman Clinic of the Royal Free Hospital
was opened late in 1930, to which the children of Prospect Terrace School and
scholarship children generally are admitted. To this clinic also the Council's local
centres are commencing to refer deformed mouths which are so frequent in England
and for the correction of which the existing dental hospitals are severely overworked.
"Three new dental centres will be brought into use in 1931, and will each provide
much-needed accommodation."
Testimony is not wanting to the improvement of the dental condition of young
adults. Dr. Mary Kidd, contributing to the report of the medical officer of health
of Hampstead for 1929, states: "I want to pay a tribute to the marvellous results
that one is beginning to see now, of the dental treatment that has been bestowed so
adequately and thoroughly on the London elementary school children in the last
fifteen years or so. When I first took charge of the ante-natal clinics in 1918, the
teeth of most of the expectant mothers were in a very bad state owing to decay and
pyorrhoea. In their school days the dental inspection and treatment of school
children in the elementary schools had scarcely been begun. In recent years we
have seen a great change in the condition of the teeth of the young expectant
mothers. Dental decay and oral sepsis are not nearly so frequently encountered as
in the years 1918 to 1924. I attribute this to the fact that the young mothers we
are dealing with now have mostly received dental treatment whilst at school."
Again, in his inaugural address delivered as President of the Metropolitan Branch
of the British Dental Association on December 11th, 1930, Mr. B. B. Samuel stated:
"If one may make a general statement at this stage, it would be that the dental
condition of children (at least in the London area) has very considerably improved
during the last two decades. One no longer sees the large number of appalling
carious dentitions in quite young children, and, at Paddington Green Children's
Hospital, when such a case comes before us, my colleagues and I usually surmise
correctly that the patient is from outer London. I feel that sufficient credit has not
been given to the dentists employed by the London County Council for the interest
aroused by them and by the workers at the various voluntary organisations, notably
the school care committees and the pre-natal and maternity clinics. I think that
the public, through these and other agencies, have now learnt something of the evils
that may be expected from neglected teeth, and, more important still, the desirability
of prevention has been rightly stressed."