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DENTAL SERVICE
Mr. J.D. Palmer, Principal School Dental Officer
With the growing affluence of our society, and the change in the patterns
of living which come in its wake, dental disease flourishes. Despite the best
efforts of the dental profession over many years, providing an ever increasing
volume and more sophisticated treatment - which has been made possible by
technical advances and improving methods - there is more dental disease
affecting more people than ever today.
The public has come to accept dental disease with eventual loss of teeth
as inevitable and generally looks upon the dentist purely as a provider of
treatment by doing jobs in their mouths (with varying degrees of unpleasantness).
But both dental decay and gum disorders are very largely preventable,
and certainly controllable, by relatively simple means which are ultimately
less expensive to the community. So one of the prime objectives of a public
dental service must be to promote the concept of dental health by advice and
provision of control services and motivate individuals to seek such care.