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Courses
Two dental surgery assistants attended the evening course held by the City
College of Further Education and were successful in the subsequent examination
for the National Certificate. Classes for this course were held at St.
George's Health Services Centre.
During the year courses attended by dental officers included one on the
subject of Preventive Dentistry at the British Dental Association Headquarters
in London, a refresher course at Oxford in September, one on the care of handicapped
children at Guy's Hospital and one on the latest advances in drugs at
Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood. Visitors to the Borough during the year included
Dr. E.V. Castillo, the Deputy Director of Dental Services for the Phillipines
who was in the country on a W.H.O. Fellowship and was most interested
in the dental services in the Borough.
Dental Health Education
Throughout the year the programme of dental health education continued
with various activities at different schools in the Borough. At one school a
Dental Health Summer Fair was organised by one of the dental surgery assistants.
This was a great success and enabled the children to make the learning of the
dental health lesson an interesting procedure. The I.L.E.A. Dental Health Puppet
Show again visited the Borough during November and 31 schools and a total of
4,470 children received dental health education in an amusing and entertaining
way. The Puppet Show was also taken to two childrens hospitals.
Although a number of schools being supplied with apples decided to leave
the "Apples for Schools" scheme, it was very encouraging to see that many of
these schools were contacting local shops and buying apples directly for resale
to the children during break time. This was a tangible result of the efforts over
previous years of dental health education. Children were becoming accustomed
to buying apples at school break time instead of biscuits and sweets and therefore
one small step forward in improving both their dental health and possibly
their general health also had been taken. A description of the scheme operating
in Southwark schools was featured in the display of the General Dental Council
at the Royal Society of Health Congress at Eastbourne in April.
The dental auxiliary carried out most of the dental health education work
during the year. This involved much visiting of schools and also a considerable
amount of ingenuity and hard work which went into the preparation for the
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