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310
tabulations for the survey only included the necessity or lack of
treatment required and the diseased, missing and filled teeth, without
the details of individual age groups. This is mentioned to
explain why the "number of children examined" figures in the
comparison of age groups is less than the sum total examined.
As there is some doubt amongst clinicians whether anterior milk
teeth due to be shed shortly require filling and. as the main object
of the survey was to assess the dental health from a treatment
point of view, the figures of diseased, missing and filled exclude the
anterior milk teeth and, as a consequence, the sum total findings
of diseased + missing + filled is somewhat reduced. Nevertheless
it shows the usual disappointing trend of decrease in dental health
with ascending age groups. Similarly, teeth with both previous
fillings and decay were recorded as both filled and decayed. This
was done so as not to distort the picture of previous treatment where
a tooth was filled and now found decayed as it would otherwise
appear that the child had had no previous treatment. The apparent
slight drop from the 9-10 to the 10-11 age group regrettably does
not show an improvement but only replacement of milk teeth by
as yet healthy permanent successors. If we consider that dental
disease is largely preventable, the findings substantiate the sad
picture of preceding reports.
Inadequate oral hygiene is a major factor in the production of
dental disease and the findings show how small the percentage of
good oral hygiene is. It is hoped that the dental health education
programme now established, supplemented in 1968 by a dental
health education officer's follow-up visits after school dental inspections,
will show its effect in future findings. Parents attending at
school inspections were shown details of their children's dental
health and oral hygiene and received individual preventive instructions.
It is disappointing to note the low percentage of parents
availing themselves of this opportunity and their descending
percentage with increasing age groups. Although 17.08%
prevalence of orthodontic malocclusions may not appear to be
extremely high, the figure of 1,180 children in a sample of 6,623
shows the definite existence of a problem closely connected with
the necessity of establishing a Borough school orthodontic service.
The annual report for 1968 is intended to let figures speak for
themselves. It shows the magnitude of the problem in the young
age groups, which equally exists in the children of secondary school
age. It must be stressed again that dental disease is largely preventable
and that more than 51,000 diseased, missing and filled teeth
seen by one man in a relatively small sample points to the urgency
of expansion of the Borough's school dental service.
More than one-third (38.01%) of the children examined by me