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DENTAL SERVICES
Dr. E. Mahler, M.D., L.D.S.,
Chief Dental Officer and Principal School Dental Officer reports
Accommodation for Dental Services
School for Dental Auxiliaries (4 surgeries), New Cross General Hospital, S.E.14
Deptford Schools Treatment Centre (2 surgeries), Reginald Square, S.E.8
Lewisham Schools Treatment Centre (2 surgeries), 78 Lewisham Park, S.E.13
Downham Schools Treatment Centre (2 surgeries), Churchdown, Downham
Sedgehill Comprehensive School (1 surgery), Bellingham, S.E.6
Sedgehill Comprehensive School (roll 1,500)
The surgery is the first opened in a comprehensive school in Lewisham. Treatments
were started on 13th May, and the equipment is of the most modern type.
The surgery operates daily; one out of ten sessions is devoted to orthodontics and
one for children from a neighbouring school (with the kind permission of the Headmaster
of Sedgehill School).
Due to the generous support of the teaching and medical staff, the surgery is
part of the school, it has been a great sucess from the start and demand for treatment
is increasing.
Preparations are in progress to open a surgery at Catford Senior Girls Comprehensive
School in 1969 with identical equipment and arrangements.
School for Dental Auxiliaries
This establishment continues to be sponsored by the General Dental Council, and
is directed by Mr. T. H. Liptrot since the retirement on 31st March of Mr. J. V. Bingay,
o.b.e. It contains a clinic, 4 surgeries conducted by two dental officers and two dental
auxiliaries on the staff of the Health Department. By joint agreement the school is
responsible for the routine treatment of groups of schoolchildren in the Borough in
addition to those of a neighbouring Authority. Routine inspections for primary
schoolchildren attending 14 schools (3,419 children) have been transferred to the
Borough for the time being.
Mr. T. H. Liptrot, Director, reports:
The School for Dental Auxiliaries has now been established for some nine years
and during that time it has been able to offer to the children of Lewisham a comprehensive
dental service.
It is very much to the credit of the parents of the children, to head teachers, and to
the officers of the Lewisham Health Department, that they have increasingly taken
advantage of the facilities available.
The demands now made on the school for treatment are such that we have great
difficulty in meeting them as promptly as we would wish. The school is looking for
ways of increasing its service and to this end there is consultation from time to time
with the officers of the Health Department, whose interest and support of the school
is greatly appreciated. Without such co-operation our task would be a very difficult
one. The location within the school of a unit of the Borough's School Dental Service
is of the greatest help to us and to the patients,
The school is also greatly indebted to the head teachers of the schools served by
our clinic. Their willing co-operation and readiness to assist with the arrangements
for patients and for providing the means for our students to gain experience in
teaching dental health is of the greatest help to us.
During 1968 the students of the school inserted 7,176 fillings for school children
and pre-school children, and extracted 342 deciduous teeth.
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