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309
THE SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE
Report of the Principal School Dental Officer
The Annual Report for 1967 stated in its penultimate paragraph
"While 1965 could be regarded as a year of assessment and 1966
as that of reorganisation and modernisation, it had been fervently
hoped that 1967 would have been the year of achievement. However,
it was not to be. Perhaps the coming year will see the realisation
of such aspirations prior to entering upon an expansion phase
leading to a realistic dentist/patient ratio". I am happy to report
that in 1968 we approached the optimal deployment of the
potential of facilities available. We succeeded for the first time in
achieving continuity of dental manpower and in deploying the
service rather than overcoming difficulties.
In January, yet another surgery in a school, Eltham Green Comprehensive,
was brought into use which has equalled the success of
its predecessor at Kidbrooke Comprehensive School.
Although school dental inspections still had to be kept in step
with the treatment facilities available by restriction to the younger
age groups, the statistical analysis for 1968 shows an increase of
over 200% in the number of children inspected at schools and
clinics compared with 1967. It has to be stressed that every child
examined at school was given a detailed examination of clinical
standard with an individual recorded assessment of diseased,
missing and filled teeth, orthodontic aspects and oral hygiene.
Simultaneously, the preventive and dental health education programme
outlined in the 1967 Report, was consolidated and
extended into all the schools examined. The schools inspected also
included all but one of the special schools for educationally subnormal
and handicapped children.
Having analysed and planned the administrative, physical and
clinical aspects of the service as outlined in my previous three
Annual Reports, the next step to be taken was the assessment of
the problem from a public health point of view. To standardise
the findings and to eliminate the individual variations introduced
whenever a number of examiners partake in a survey, I thought it
preferable to carry out a one-man survey myself. The appended
synopsis of the comprehensive survey therefore only gives my own
personal findings and excludes children examined by other dental
officers.
The scope and tabulations of the findings changed somewhat as
the survey progressed. At first the main objective was to assess
the individual and collective dental health of the pupils of the
schools examined. Whilst from the very beginning all the factors
were entered on the child's dental health record card, inital separate