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112
to help with the heavy work load and for relief and emergency
surgery work.
Recruitment has not been a problem as yet. However, general
dental practitioners in the Borough are becoming increasingly concerned
about the constant shortage of dental surgery assistants that
does exist in the area. They are also worried about the quality of
potential staff coming forward for interview. As the pressures on
any particular sector of the profession inevitably affects the other
sectors, the British Dental Association and the Whitley Council
should consider the problem as one of salary. When a local authority
advertisement appears in the local press near another for
girls of school leaving age, they suffer very badly by comparison
with salaries offered by banks, insurance companies and even
factories. It would appear likely that a better standard of recruitment
could be achieved by a higher starting point, combined with
fewer and larger increments early in the scale, leading to a maximum
comparable with salaries for careers in the commercial field.
Any school leaver of reasonable intelligence should have mastered
her work within two years, and to hold her salary down because
of age instead of paying her for her competence does not make
sense.
An Inspector from the Department of Education and Science
made a two-day visit in February to examine and report on the
dental services. Inspections have been running at a high level so
that in places they had outstripped the treatment facilities to some
extent. This was largely rectified by the end of the year. The main
emphasis has been on the inspection of pupils in infant and junior
schools because the percentage of children who require treatment
is much higher there than in secondary schools. The inspection of
large comprehensive secondary schools also has inherent difficulties
brought about by the modern system of education. Experience
suggests that a school surgery enables the staff to carry out these
inspections without interfering with the school curriculum, and
minimises the time wasted in attending a surgery. It also eliminates
the failure rate in attendances. The pattern of treatment has been
very good with the emphasis on conservation with a very good
increase in the amount of work done. This has resulted in a higher
than average ratio of teeth filled to teeth extracted. There has been
a welcome decrease in general anaesthetics and emergencies.
Three full-time dental officers and myself attended various
courses on the treatment of handicapped children, orthodontics and
the Public Dental Officer Preventive Dentistry Symposium at the
British Dental Association.
Once again an I.L.E.A. mobile surgery was used during the year
at special schools. Oak Lodge and Linden Lodge were visited as
usual, and the unit was also taken to Chartfield School this year.
These visits take place every six months. The use of the mobile