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Accidents to School Children

SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE
As one year follows another we continue like King Canute, vainly trying to stem a rising tide
(of need and demand for dental treatment) with about the same degree of success as was achieved by
the well known Monarch. Dental defects in our child population as a whole develop at least as fast
as we are able to provide treatment for some, so that no matter how hard we work we do no better than
prevent an increase in the amount of necessary treatment outstanding. For how long, I wonder, are
we to be denied the benefits of fluoridation of the water supplies, without which it seems that
children will continue to suffer pain, inconvenience and sometimes ill-health, which could so easily
be reduced to manageable proportions? In what other field of preventive medicine would those in
need be denied a known, safe and effective remedy?
The figures set out at the end of this report show the amount of work done during the year for
the most usual types of treatment, and these follow the pattern established in the three previous
years.
There are, inevitably, minor fluctuations from year to year, but two large variations in 1968
deserving of comment related to dental inspections in schools and to the orthodontic service, and
there are dealt with fully below.
Inspection and treatment
The number of pupils on the school rolls on 31st December was 35,812, an increase of 1,421
over the previous year. Routine dental inspections in schools occupied 184 sessions, 27 fewer than
in 1967, at which 15,152 were examined for the first time in the year, and a further 3,836 were first
examined in the clinics. Together these total 18,988 which represents only 53% of the school
population and is a considerable and unwelcome reduction from the average of 64% of the three
previous years.
The two clinics which have always failed by a large margin to examine all their schools in the
year, because of the overwhelming demand for treatment which leaves little opportunity for attracting
the additional demand arising from school inspections, were no better placed during the year under
review. To their shortfall was added difficulty at other clinics arising from the additional burden
imposed as a result of the re-allocation of schools resulting from the closure ofthe Wood Green clinic,
to allow the building of the new health centre on the same site. Staffing difficulties at another
clinic made for more schools not visited. To these factors was added the increase in the total
school population during the year.
It is an essential part of the service we provide that, if as a result of inspections in schools a
child is found to require treatment and the parent asks that we undertake the necessary work, we
should do so within a reasonable time. It would be quite wrong to bring about a demand which we
then had to refuse because it was beyond our capacity, and this at the expense of time spent in
schools which could not be spared from actual treatment.
Nevertheless, as the low percentage is quite unlike the higher figure in each of the three
preceding years, there seems no good reason why we should not revert to a more satisfactory state
of affairs, even if this has to await the coming into use of the new Wood Green centre and the
consequent reversion to the previous better distribution of the schools and availability of the extra
surgeries.
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