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This gave a ratio of 8,000 school children per dental officer
— as against a national average of 5.600:1. This does not take
into account an estimated figure of 21,000 children of pre-school
age who are entitled to an inspection and treatment service at the
Council's clinics, together with nursing and expectant mothers.
Inspections:
Annual school dental inspections, as well as assessing
dental needs provide a means of bringing the subject of dental
health to the minds of both children and their parents. Although
the number of children inspected rose considerably over the
previous year's total, it was only possible to inspect 36% of the
whole school roll during the year.
The staffing situation permitting, every effort will be made
to increase this figure in the future.
Dental Health Education
In addition to her clinical training, a dental auxiliary is
given instruction in the dissemination of Dental Health Education.
In this respect Miss Fenelon was able to make a very valuable
contribution during the year. With the co-operation and encouragement
of Head Teachers she visited several primary schools and
gave dental health talks, usually to a class at a time so that
individual participation could be achieved. These were
supplemented on occasions by the showing of short dental health
films. Good creative ability enabled Miss Fenelon to produce her
own materials for use in these talks and also to provide original
posters for display in the Clinics.
The fuli annual statistics for the Dental Service are given
in the following tables.