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88
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE DENTAL SERVICE.
An increased proportion of clinical time was devoted to the priority
classes during the year, and an improvement was shown in overall
attendances and in the amount of treatment provided.
Encouragement was given to parents to seek dental advice for the
under-fives, for it is with this age group that effective preventive
dentistry must start.
Dental officers were also encouraged to give advice on dental
health to expectant mothers attending the clinics, since the mother-to-be
is particularly interested in matters concerning the baby's future
health.
Inspections were carried out in the two nursery schools in the
borough and nursery departments were also included in infant school
inspections. Numbers of these children subsequently attended the
clinics.
It is regrettable that rampant caries of the primary teeth, with
tragic and unnecessary destruction, was seen no less commonly in very
young children due to the consumption of vitamin syrups in reservoir
feeders.
This is one aspect of dental health education in which no progress is
being made and perhaps more co-operation and understanding is necessary
between doctors and dentists to influence parents and so reverse the trend.
It should also be borne in mind that the incidence of decay in
future generations of children would be reduced by 50/60 per cent by
implementation of the Council's policy to have the level of fluoride in
the domestic water supply adjusted to the optimum concentration of one
part per million.
Today's children, especially the younger ones, would also benefit
from the introduction of this cheap, simple and safe measure well into
middle age and probably later.