London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hounslow 1965
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hounslow]
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or root canals were recorded as needing extraction for
the purpose of this survey. Permanent teeth were
recorded as present if any part of the crown had
penetrated the gum surface.
2. The percentage of children receiving regular dental
care either from practitioners in the General Dental
Service or from the Local Authority Dental Service
was established by questioning the parent. In the
absence of the parent the validity of the information
given by the child on this point was considered in the
light of the clinical condition observed.
3. Oral hygiene was recorded as unsatisfactory when
it was judged that the pupils regimen of home dental
care was clearly inadequate.
Results
So that the data relating to the DMF index can be
compared with other published work, the findings are
reported in two different ways.
1. Data relating to canine and molar teeth only
2. Data relating to all teeth
In the case of 2 where there was reason to assume
that deciduous incisor teeth had been lost due to the
normal succession of the permanent incisor, the figure
quoted includes the deciduous incisor as present and
healthy. This information together with details of the
percentage of children found to be free from dental
decay and also the details of individual schools is
shown in Table 1.
| School | Total examined | Caries free | No. | Decayed, missing, filled | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All teeth Average | Canines & molars Average | ||||||
| No. | % | DMF per child | No. | DMF per child | |||
| Cranford | 75 | 21 | 28 | 306 | 4.1 | 270 | 3.6 |
| Beverley Road | 46 | 12 | 26.1 | 199 | 4.3 | 171 | 3.7 |
| Norwood Green | 58 | 14 | 24.1 | 198 | 3.4 | 188 | 3.2 |
| St Paul's | 28 | 5 | 17.9 | 141 | 5.0 | 118 | 4.2 |
| Cardinal Road | 97 | 24 | 24.7 | 386 | 4.0 | 344 | 3.5 |
| Hounslow Town | 30 | 9 | 30 | 122 | 4.1 | 103 | 3.4 |
| Belmont Infants' | 43 | 16 | 37.2 | 157 | 3.7 | 129 | 3.0 |
| Hogarth Infants' | 38 | 10 | 26.3 | 135 | 3.6 | 122 | 3.2 |
| Total | 415 | 111 | 26.8 | 1,644 | 4.0 | 1,445 | 3.5 |
Seventy-three per cent of all children examined
were found to be suffering already from dental decay
by the age of five years. The average child had
between three and four teeth which were decayed,
filled or had been extracted.
Table 2 gives details of the number of children who
at the age of five had already lost teeth or who had
teeth in their mouths which required extraction.
Table 2
Number of children with teeth already lost due
to dental decay 76
Number of children requiring teeth extracted 28
Number of teeth requiring extraction 65
Number of teeth missing (due to dental decay) 277
The histogram (graph 1) shows the distribution of
caries attack among children of one school and it is
thought to be typical of the children in general.
Graph I
Number of decayed, missing and filled teeth
68