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new school entrants in the Borough require dental treatment and
less than 20% show good oral hygiene.
Dental clinics cater for all cases whether spontaneous or referred
but, in view of the considerable pressure on the treatment facilities
of the school dental service, apart from a pilot scheme at one
centre, no active recruitment of new patients is undertaken. During
1969, of the 1,731.5 dental treatment sessions, 1,645.3 (95.02%)
were in respect of school dentistry and only 86.2 (4.98%) for the
M. & C. W. Service, a total which represents little more than one
half of the Ministry's recommended figure. Since this percentage
consisted mainly of spontaneous requests, it is clear that organised
active encouragement would result in an overwhelming of present
resources with scant numerical impact on community needs.
As an alternative, a more realistic approach would be to raise
treatment potential to 9% of the Borough's actual young child
and mother populations, currently estimated at 18,000 and 8,000
respectively, giving relative figures of 1,620 and 720 as possible
patients. Making due allowance for differing treatment time
requirements, this would entail an increase of 1.5 full time dental
officers for children and 0.5 for mothers. Present clinic accommodation
would be unable to cater for such expansion and, even if
one twin surgery were available, its inaccessibility to most residents
would reduce its popularity and therefore its effectiveness. This
suggested alternative becomes feasible only with the introduction
of new school dental service surgeries made available for the
requisite amount of use by the M. & C. W. dental services. Dental
auxiliaries could be of considerable help with young children but
they require supervision and, therefore, the use of twin surgeries.
So far, I have referred only to expansion of potential. There
is, however, equal need to enlarge the scope of the service. In
order to gain experience for universal application when conditions
permit, a successful link-up with a toddler's clinic at one centre
has been achieved by offering an introductory dental inspection of
the child at the time of a physical examination, accompanied by
an interview with the mother on prevention. In addition, a twenty
minute talk at another centre during each 6 weeks' pre-natal
relaxation course has recently been introduced, a task which could
well be undertaken by a dental auxiliary. Some more fortunate
authorities, with ample facilities, send a dental "third birthday"
card, a practice which could be adopted with advantage, perhaps,
in this Borough.
Another year has passed during which the service endeavoured
to cover need whilst having to acknowledge that its contribution