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(4) Appointment directly by the Council of the part-time dental surgeons and
ancesthetists instead of appointments being made by the centre committees. This
was arranged from 1st October, 1938, so far as the dental surgeons were concerned,
and it is expected that the dental anaesthetists will be appointed directly by the
Council during the year 1939.
(5) Gradual replacement of part-time dental surgeons by whole-time officers.
It has been decided that the school and hospital dental services shall be combined,
and that the services of the officers shall be interchangeable between school
treatment centres and general or special hospitals. The part-time dental
surgeons will be replaced gradually as opportunity occurs. The scale of salary
approved is £500 a year, with annual increments of £25, to a maximum of £750 a
year.
(6) The employment of dental attendants. At present the dental surgeons
are assisted at the dental inspections in the schools by assistant organisers of
care committee work, and at the treatment centres by qualified nurses. It is
proposed that one dental attendant, who will be a woman, will be appointed for
each whole-time dental surgeon. Her duties will mainly consist of chairside
assistance, preparation of the dental surgery, clerical duties and attendance at
the dental inspections in the schools. The scale of salary approved is £120 a
year, with annual increments of £10, to a maximum of £180 a year.
So far as the work at the hospitals and treatment centres included in the Council's
scheme during the year 1938 is concerned, the total number of children dealt with was
138,639, compared with 138,437 during the year 1937. Details of the work undertaken
will be found in table IV, group IV, at the end of this report.
The most notable feature in regard to the work is that, although only slightly
more children were attended to in 1938 than in 1937, the amount of conservative
treatment carried out in 1938 exceeded that of the former year by about 20,000
fillings. This can be accounted for in two ways : firstly, by the introduction of the
inspection and the subsequent treatment of certain children in the " leaver " group
and, secondly, by the provision of additional dental sessions in order that a higher
standard of conservative treatment, especially of permanent teeth, could be
attained. The ratio of fillings in permanent teeth to permanent teeth extracted
was 2.54 to 1, compared with 2.31 to 1 in 1937, 2.07 to 1 in 1936, and 2.05 to 1 in
1935.
The total number of dental treatment centres at the end of 1938 was 74, including
the special centre at Berkshire Road school and the Eastman clinic. Three new
centres were opened during the year at Brixton, North Hammersmith (sub-centre)
and Northwold (Hackney).
The Old Ford centre was transferred in October, 1938, from temporary premises
at Monteith Road M.D. School to the first floor of the maternity and child welfare
centre built by the Poplar Borough Council in Wendon Street, E.3.
The dental inspections in the schools have been carried out by the 83 inspecting
dental surgeons, of whom 16 are women. The number of sessions devoted to this
work was 2,857, and 292,971 children were examined. Of these, 204,205 were found
to require treatment, or 69.7 per cent., compared with 68.3 per cent. in 1937. During
1937, the number inspected was 315,016, of whom 215,243 were found to require treatment.
Orthodontics
The scheme for the orthodontic treatment of school children under the direction
of the two orthodontists, Miss L. M. Clinch and Miss E. M. Still, has been continued
during the year. Miss Clinch undertakes the treatment at the 6 centres north of the
Thames, viz., Chelsea, Hackney, Hammersmith, Notting Dale, Paddington and
Whitechapel, and Miss Still the 5 centres south of the river, viz., Bermondsey Medical
Mission, Deptford, St. Christopher (Battersea), Stockwell and Woolwich. In addition
to the treatment at the centres, the orthodontists undertake the construction of fixed
appliances at the workshop, 123, Peckham Road, or in their own laboratories.
Specially trained nurses assist both at the centres and in the making of the plaster