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102
DENTAL SERVICES
The Council's Chief Dental Surgeon, Mr. Wm. Ritchie Young, V.K.D., F.D.S.,
R.C.S. (Eng.), reports as follows :—
Throughout 1949 efforts were continued to disentangle responsibility for dental
services in accordance with the various directives operating the National Health
Services.
In the dental treatment centres* remaining thoughout the year under the
jurisdiction of the Council arrangements were made, as far as possible, to have dental
treatment carried out by the responsible authority under the National Health
Service Act, 1946.
Authorities responsible for dental care as laid down in the Act are:—
Regional Hospital Boards (Part II of the Act) —
Dental care in hospitals including dental care of tuberculous and mental
patients.
Local Health Authorities (Part III of the Act) —
"Priority" dental services for expectant and nursing mothers and children
of pre-school age. (N.B. In addition under the Education Act, 1944,
children at school).
Local Executive Councils (Part IV of the Act) —
The "General Dental Service" for any person in private premises and/or
in health centres.
All three dental services remained intermingled although there was some
clarification during the year by allotting specific individuals and specific surgeries
for use on only one service. Following pre-5th July, 1948, arrangements, certain
Part IV (General) and Part II (T.B.) dental services continued under the Council's
auspices in thirteen treatment centres.
The greater financial attraction of dental practice elsewhere continued to
reduce the Council's dental staff and for a second year it was not possible to extend
and improve the dental services committed to the Council's care, and the Council's
policy has had to continue to be held in abeyance.
As a result of loss of staff throughout the year and inability to recruit on a
firm basis, fifty-eight surgeries out of a total of ninety-six were closed or partly
closed at the end of the year. Included in this figure (58) are all ten of the mobile
dental units purchased in 1947, and which, for a short time, proved so successful
until staff resignations necessitated their withdrawal from service.
The two dental fields in which the Council has statutory obligations are (a) the
dental inspection and treatment of school children (Education Act, 1944), and
(6) the dental care of expectant and nursing mothers and pre-school children
(Section 22 National Health Service Act, 1946).
It is the ultimate intention of the Council to integrate these two services to
form a "priority" service as envisaged in the National Health Service Act, 1946
but it has only been possible during 1949 to do so in seven full-time treatment
centres. Other centres deal mainly with either one or the other type of service and
it is, therefore, convenient to present tables of the work carried out and the staff
position under the two headings "School Dental Service" and "Maternity and
Child Welfare Dental Service."

*Some centres have more than one dental surgery.