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116
these sessions under Miss Mutter's direction. It is hoped that
dental students will become more involved in this procsss as
time goes by, as it will benefit both students and the community,
and prove to be of great value to our staff.
1972 is only the beginning. Another Dental Auxiliary is to be
added to the staff and suitable Dental Surgery Assistants will be
trained for this role so that within two years all infant and junior
schoolchildren will be covered by this programme. The infants
are a little immature for the supervised disclosing and brushing,
but are very susceptible to the puppet show. It will also enable
Dental Officers to concentrate on operative repair and prevention
and to avoid, to a large extent, the constant effort to present
health education to individual patients who, due to a high level
of disease, are in a stress situation. Such situations are far
from conducive to good reception of such an important philosophy,
whereas the relaxed happy atmosphere and familiar surroundings
of a school are a distinct advantage. As stated earlier in this
Report, an experimental scheme was instituted at St.Christopher's
Treatment Centre wherein the mothers at toddlers clinics are
asked by the attendant doctor if they would like to discuss the
care of teeth in small children with the dental staff on duty. This
is being done on an informal basis, between patients, with, if
possible, a quick look at the child's teeth. In due course this
will be assessed to see if it should be expanded to other centres.
Meanwhile the basic dental health education given at the chairside
will support this programme where it is considered necessary.
Health Education through general publicity
Family Planning and Cervical Cytology were the two services
for which general publicity was mounted during the year. In
support of the material produced and distributed by the Family
Planning Association a poster and a leaflet were published under
the title: "Plan for your family" in which general information and
encouragement were given as well as a list of clinics. The posters
were widely distributed throughout the Borough by post and by
personal delivery to Council clinics. General Practitioner surgeries,
hospitals, libraries, chemists, laundrettes, the Director of Social
Services and various voluntary organisations. The leaflets were
similarly distributed with the exception of chemists and laundrettes.
It should be noted that family doctors continue to make about 25%
of the effective referrals to the family planning clinics. This
publicity was part of the general expansion of the family planning
services which continued the trend of the previous year and
overall there was an increase of 20% in the total number of
patients seen.