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to us at the moment is this type of stimulation of children to attend their own dentist
i.e. general dental practitioner, school dental officer or the staff at the London
Hospital Dental Department and thus achieving early treatment of small dental lesions and
preventive therapy and advice.
Inspection
Regular school dental inspections continue and the object of inspecting primary
schools every other term and secondary schools once each year has been achieved in almost
every case. The percentage of children found to require treatment in all age groups
examined has remained fairly constant at approximately 68%.
The system of examination described in last year's report has been continued and the
details of each child's dental treatment needs are sufficient to show each individual
child's progress of disease and treatment pattern. It is therefore possible to inform
parents, teachers and the dental personnel involved of the dental neglect or achievement
of each child and thus stimulate the attention which each case deserves.
Treatment
The treatment provided in our clinics continues to be of a gratifyingly conservative
nature. The number of fillings completed totalled 15,807 (9,119 in permanent and 6,688 in
temporary teeth) whilst extractions were only 263 permanent and 799 temporary teeth. The
ratios of permanent teeth filled to extracted being 38.5:1 (national average 5.3:1)
and temporary teeth filled to temporary teeth extracted 8.3:1 (national average 0.6:1)
which must be considered very satisfactory.
The number of broken appointments at our clinics has been reduced to 39.6% which is
a reasonable improvement during one year. The figure is still far too high and a system of
informing both school and parent of each child's dental appointment will it is hoped reduce
the broken appointment rate still further.
As has been mentioned in previous reports the solution to the problem of broken
appointments and of the dentally deprived child whose parents will never co-operate and
take him/her to adental surgery for treatment can only be met in the long term by taking
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