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The total number of children with minor ear defects treated
at the Health Centre amounted to one hundred and twenty.
Particulars regarding the children below school age are
given in the report of the Medical Officer of Health.
(g) Dental Defects. The routine dental inspections
include all the children attending the public elementary
schools.
In 1938 there were 4,088 children dentally inspected in the
routine age groups. A further six hundred and six children
were inspected as special cases. The total number of children
thus examined amounted to 4,694. This represents an increase
of one hundred and nine on the figure for 1937. There were
3,332, or 70.98%, found to require treatment and their parents
were notified accordingly. During the previous year the
figure was 72.25%.
The number of children actually treated was 1,867, or
56.03% of those found to require treatment. It is still difficult
to obtain consent for treatment in a considerable number
of cases. During 1938 it was decided that notices to the
parents advising them of dental defects requiring treatment
should be sent through the post and not delivered by the
scholars themselves as in previous years. This has resulted
in an increase in the number of consent forms which have
been returned. When appointments are not kept visits are
paid to the homes by the school nurses. Every effort is made
to get the parents to attend with their children at the Dental
Clinic.
The Saturday morning sessions continue to show a good
average attendance.
Forty-three half days were devoted to dental inspection
in the schools and three hundred and seventy half days to
treatment at the Health Centre.
The number of attendances made by children for treatment
amounted to 3,937. This is one hundred and eleven more
than the figure for the previous year. The average number of
children attending for treatment per session was 10.64, a
slight increase as compared with the figure of 10.51 for 1937.