View report page

310
vantages of multi-surgery clinics. Besides gratefully acknowledging
the assistance furnished by the I.L.E.A. dental health educator,
the value of the part-time use of the dental auxiliary in reinforcing
our dental health education programme in the schools must be
recognised and justifiably regarded as a step in the right direction.
These improvements, together with previous modernisations, have
produced an effective and desirable children's service even though
demands are in excess of its capacity.
Elimination of travel, higher rates of fulfilled appointments, ease
of substitution in cases of non-aittendance are some of the advantages
accruing from the successful school-based surgery. However,
because these surgeries function only during term-time and are
unavailable for M. & C.W. purposes in the interim, economic
exigencies may require revision of future planning. In this respect
future plans would be very much better served if a prospective
dental surgery could be sited at the school's periphery rather than
within the actual school building. Such an adjustment would not
only provide, as before, full facilities for children of that particular
school but could, by a separate street entrance, offer similar services
throughout the year to pupils of other schools as well as to
mothers and children of pre-school age.
Appraisal of the Greenwich school dental service shows that
our decision to organise and create, in the light of experience, an
effective nucleus prior to necessary expansion was undoubtedly
the right one. Original facilities taken over in 1965 have been
improved, modernised and deployed with optimum benefit. To
these we have added the potential of a further 5 surgeries and
have introduced orthodontic assessment and treatment. Dental
health education in schools and clinics has been firmly established
and now forms an integral part of the service and, despite great
local difficulties, we are successfully coping with the recruitment
of professional staff. Nevertheless, the unpalatable truth is that,
for a school population of 40,000, our service is numerically inadequate
and fails to reach all age groups. Some children with
parents who are aware of the advantages of preventive dentistry
secure advice and treatment elsewhere but, clearly, the needs of
the majority remain unsatisfied. Whilst a partial solution is sought
in mobile clinics, only when a practical Health Centre programme
has been produced will our future be clarified.