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SCHOOL DENTAL WORK
An important factor in the health and education in hygiene of school children is the attention paid to the teeth.
Sound teeth are not only essential to first-class health, but are important from the aesthetic point of view.
The accompanying chart indicates that in the last ten years the character of the dental work undertaken for the
elementary school children has changed considerably. In 1929 three part-time school dentists doing ten sessions per week
extracted 5,574 teeth for the most part under general anassthetics, which were administered to 1,690 children. In the
same year they did 2,390 fillings.
There has been a great reduction in the number of general dental anaesthetics to 860 in 1938, the number of teeth
extracted being 3,274. For the first time in the history of school dental work in Hornsey the number of fillings (3,545)
has exceeded the extractions. This change has been effected by the employment of one whole-time dentist until late in
1938, when an additional half-time dentist was appointed.
It cannot be too strongly emphasised that the function of school dental work is to save teeth before they become
so decayed that they must be extracted. The attainment of this ideal would involve greater attention to the temporary
teeth in pre-school years, and annual dental inspection and treatment in the elementary schools. Other factors contributing
to an improved dental state in the schools are sound nutrition and the practice by the children of dental cleanliness.
The general impression which this decennial review of the dental work conveys is that substantial progress on sound
lines has been achieved, but that more work must be done yearly to obtain really satisfactory results and send boys and
girls out into the world with sound sets of teeth.