View report page

83
than in any previous year, and is mainly due to the work done at the after-care
clinic in Kentish Town, established by the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Dr.
Wells sees here ordinary cases of otorrhœa needing ionisation, and the institution
also acts as a clearing house both for cases of mastoid disease to be sent to the
Board's special hospital at the "Downs," in Surrey, and for cases requiring aftercare
on leaving the " Downs."
Ionisation.
At the Kentish Town institution alone 1,621 ionisations were performed in
1924, with cures amounting to 80 per cent.; in addition 101 children who had
returned from the "Downs" hospital received after-care. Dr. Friel continued his
ionisation work at Cable-street and Kenley-street, and 279 ionisations were carried
out with cures in 59 per cent. of those treated. Ionisation has also been available
at the Britannia-row institution, in Islington, where Lady Essex French installed
the apparatus two Years age. 88 children were treated and 32 were cured.
Mas oid
operations.
There were 224 mastoid operations performed on Council children at the
"Downs" hospital. 93 cases were discharged cured, 112 are still under treatment,
6 cases lapsed, and in 9 cases no cure could be effected. Two deaths occurred after
operation, both being long standing and almost hopeless cases.
Ear
discharge—
Co-operation
with
Metropolitan
Asylums
Board.
Ear discharge is frequently a sequela of Scarlet Fever. An arrangement has
been made with the Metropolitan Asylums Board in the case of three of their
isolation hospitals for all children who suffer from aural symptoms during scarlet
fever to be notified to the Council. These children are specially watched in school
by the medical staff in order that any recurrence of the disease may not escape
detection in its early stages. During 1924, 252 cases were reported. Of those
attending school 15 were found to suffer from further attacks of ear trouble, and
prompt treatment at an early stage of the recurrence was thus secured.
(d) Dental defects.—54 part-time inspecting dentists were engaged in examining
the teeth of children, and 2,256 sessions were devoted to this work. 256,642 children
were inspected, i.e., 19,984 more than during 1923. Of these 178,802 were found
to require treatment, or 69.67 per cent. 99,045 children were treated at the treatment
centres, as compared with 95,332 during the previous year.
Mr. Wallis's
report on
dental
inspection
and
treatment.
The following report has been received from Mr. C. Edward Wallis:—
"The fact that there are now in the Council's service some 54 dental centres,
attending to upwards of 99,000 children a year, emphasises plainly the need for
their existence and it is only the extreme difficulty of finding suitable premises that
has delayed the provision of other centres already approved. In addition, visiting
dental surgeons attend all the Council's residential schools with the greatest benefit
to the health of their inmates. A return to comparatively normal times has
enabled many valuable innovations to be introduced, and each year in the future
it is hoped that general meetings of the dental staff as well as of the nursing staff
doing centre work will be arranged . The fact that the treatment centres in most
cases deal with other ailments as well, is a specially valuable feature, and facilitates
greatly the co-ordination of treatment.
"Dental staff.—One of the improvements of the past year has been a reduction
of the centre dental staff to two dental surgeons in cases where formerly 3 or more
were working. This has greatly facilitated supervision and enables each surgeon
to retain his own cases and thereby maintain his interest in their condition. It
also enables parents to keep to the same surgeon.
"Oral sepsis.—An inspection of the mouths of many thousands of children
shows that a large proportion are suffering from ill-health directly due to products
of putrefaction being both swallowed as well as absorbed through the sockets into
the blood stream from septic unsaveable teeth and roots. It is a common idea that
septic roots, of temporary teeth in particular, don't matter as they will soon fall
out, whereas it is now known that these same roots are responsible for enlarged glands
in the neck, septic tonsils, and many other conditions highly detrimental to health.