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114
Borough dental services will have to be expanded to fulfil the
urgent need, and as machinery for routine treatment for mothers
already exists within the general dental services, it would be
wisest at this stage to concentrate on the small children and on
dental health education and to defer ambitious expansion of
routine treatment for mothers until these aims have been achieved.
The writer deeply regrets having to dwell on inadequacies
rather than on achievements in his report. The obvious question
to ask him is why no active steps were taken in 1965 to remedy
the known crisis. The greatest problem facing the Borough dental
services at the time of writing is that of inadequate staffing. The
acute difficulty of recruiting dental surgeons is the obstacle to
expansion and improvement. Although this is beyond the powers
of the Borough to remedy actively, all possible steps are being
taken to try to find a solution. As the Borough dental services
are closely linked with the School Dental Service of the Inner
London Education Authority, expansion and re-organization will
have to proceed parallel with the progress of the School Dental
Service. If the difficulties of recruitment can be overcome, however,
there is every reason to hope for a report of success and
progress in Annual Reports to come."
Treatment During 1965
A ttendances
New Patients:
No. of Appointments 396
No. and percentage of Appointments Taken Up 184 46.5%
On-treatment Patients:
No. of Appointments 609
No. and percentage of Appointments Taken Up 488 80.1%
Emergency Patients Treated 40
Total Attendances 712
Treatments
No. of Treatment Sessions 91
Total No. of Teeth Treated 583
(a) Mothers : No. and percentage Filled 82 92.1%
No. and percentage Extracted 7 7.9%
(b) Children : No. and percentage Filled 479 98.8%
No. and percentage Extracted 6 1.2%
Silver Nitrate Treatment 9
Gum Treatment 15
X-rays 52
Dentures 5
General Anaesthetics —
All Other Operations 184