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87
1945 1946 1947 1948
Temporary teeth restored by fillings 14,216 31,117 39,685 43,033
Permanent teeth restored by fillings 44,988 72,303 82,309 94,561
Fillings in temporary teeth 14,953 33,262 42,222 45,617
Fillings in permanent teeth 49,423 79,866 92,335 104,913
Scalings 2,568 6,619 9,550 2,504 (Jan.-Mar.)
Temporary dressings, etc. 17,593 32,234 48,317 15,698 (Jan.-Mar.)
Other operations—temporary teeth — — — 28,406 (Apr.-Dec.)
Other operations—permanent teeth — — — 25,602 (Apr.-Dec.)
Local Anaesthetics for extraction 11,622 22,807 24,857 24,859
Local Anaethetics for conservative treatment
3,630 4,003 5,582 5,372
General Anaesthetics 21,867 34,664 38,036 41,292
Cases completed 43,795 73,006 86,166 98,474
Ordinary treatment sessions 8,522 15,017 19,737 22,619
General anaesthetic sessions 941 1,495 1,679 1,774
Ratio of permanent teeth restored to permanent teeth extracted:
1945 4.04 to 1
1946 4.2 to 1
1947 4.93 to 1
1948 4.58 to 1
•Figures not available.
During 1948 Lady Mellanby on behalf of the Medical Research Council continued
her examinations on the dental condition of five-year-old school children in the
county. Lady Mellanby also published in 1948 the results of her similar work in 1947.
They show a continued improvement from survey to survey. Her figures are:—
Caries
Investigations
Caries free
1929 4.7%
1943 24.2%
1945 28.1%
1947 37.5%
At Hutton Residential School and Hornchurch Residential School investigations
into the effect of topical applications of Sodium Fluoride to children's teeth were
started in March, 1948, but sufficient time has not yet elapsed to show definite results.
Recent reports from America claim great possibilities in this type of preventive
dental treatment.
Prior to 1948 all cases of malocclusion were referred to expert orthodontists for
treatment but, demand far exceeded their potential and in the past year clinicians
have been encouraged to treat cases themselves. By this means 229 more
children were treated in 1948 than in the preceding year, and a number of the staff
have shown themselves very proficient at this work. Some orthodontic comparative
figures for past years are given below.
Orthodontic
treatment
1938 1945 1947 1948
Number of orthodontists 2 2 2 4
(part-time)
Number of sessions 434 310 411 542
Total number of new cases 1,114 632 573 923
The reference of orthodontic cases to the orthodontists is controlled by issuing
to clinicians reference forms in balance with the treatment potential of the
orthodontists.
Maternity and child welfare dental service
The diverse nature of the dental services transferred from the boroughs, to which
reference has already been made, rendered the compilation of reliable statistics for
1948 somewhat difficult, as the methods used in the different boroughs for the
keeping of their data did not conform to any standard pattern,