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There were 3,690 babies under one year old and 13,610 children aged between 1 and 4
years resident in the borough during the period July 1965 to June 1966. Of these only
129 attended the borough's dental clinics. It is to the needs of these very young preschool
children that the attention of this branch of the borough's dental services must
increasingly be drawn. It is highly desirable that parents' attention is drawn to the
means whereby they may safeguard the developing dentition of their children. It is
equally important for them to understand the need to take their children to the dentist
regularly from the earliest possible age, thereby establishing a pattern wherein the
young child will accept the dentist and the dental surgery as a routine event before the
need for treatment ever arises. It is to this fundamental feature of the dental service
that the attention of dental, medical and nursing staff must primarily be directed.
At present the service meets the small demand made upon it and during 1966 maternity
and child welfare dental sessions were held at Ida Samual, Old Ford and Prunella Dental
Clinics, the number of sessions during the year being 70. It is hoped that when the
overwhelming demands of the school dental service have been met by increased staff and
facilities, that a great expansion will take place in the borough's dental services for
the priority classes. Dental health education will, in future, be featured at all postnatal
clinics, thereby stimulating mothers to take their children for regular dental
examinations from a very early age. Examination of childrens' teeth in nursery schools
and at toddlers' clinics will be commenced as soon as possible.
Details of dental treatment provided for expectant and nursing mothers and preschool
children will be found on page 106.
FAMILY PLANNING
In a circular issued early in the year the Minister of Health urged local authorities
to review their existing arrangements for family planning, with particular reference to
education and publicity, and requested that advice and treatment (including supplies)
be given without charge to those women to whom pregnancy would be detrimental to health.
Accordingly, and following representations by the Family Planning Association, the
Council agreed to the following revised payments to be made to the Association for
examinations and medical supplies provided for women in the borough referred by the
department:-
Oral contraception £2. 2s. 0d. plus cost of a year's supply of
medicaments (averages £5. 3s. 0d.)
38.