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49
Eight new patients received dental treatment at the Council's expense,
necessitating 40 attendances, at which 70 teeth were extracted, 23 teeth
filled, and other dental operations performed. General anæsthetics
were administered on 14 occasions.
Reference to dental treatment is also made under the heading of
maternity and child welfare, a brief report by the dental surgeon being
appended. The importance of dental treatment is becoming widely
recognised, but the public require a very great deal of persuasion to
appreciate that a sound appearance and absence of pain may nevertheless
conceal an active process of progressive disease in the roots of teeth and
in the gums. There is no doubt that concealed dental disease poisons
the blood, and so renders a patient liable to dangerous maladies. The
association between the condition of diabetes and dental disease is now
accepted, and improvement in sufferers from this disease when dental
disease has been eradicated has been observed and noted by many authorities.
So in tuberculosis, which, like most infections, results in a certain
degree of blood poisoning, the presence of dental disease aggravates the
primary infection and lowers the patient's resisting power.
The Council have made provision for the supply of dentures at the
clinic, and in necessitous cases contribute a half, or even two-thirds, of the
cost. No tuberculous patients required assistance in this way in 1925.
In the four previous years 1921 (5 persons), 1922 (8 persons), 1923
(2 persons), and 1924 (1 person) were provided with dentures at a
total cost of £11.
X.—Nursing and Extra Nourishment.—Up to the present time expenditure
on nursing has not ranked for grant in the Council's tuberculosis
scheme. There are very few bedridden cases of tuberculosis at home,
as advantage is widely taken of the beds which are provided for advanced
cases by the County Council and by the Guardians. The District
Nursing Associations, of which there are three, have always been glad to
lend their aid in such cases. They make a small charge, not exceeding
Is. 6d. per visit, where it can be afforded, but a good deal of gratuitous
service is also given. It would add to the completeness of the
tuberculosis scheme and would confer welcome benefits on the sulferers
if an arrangement similar to that in the maternity and child welfare
scheme were made with the Nursing Associations for cases of tuberculosis.
Extra nourishment, in the form of milk and eggs, is granted by the
Council on the recommendation of the Tuberculosis Officer to suitable
cases. These are mainly patients who have returned from sanatoria
and find difficulty in accommodating themselves to the changed conditions