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123
DENTAL SERVICES
the council's Chief Dental Officer reports as follows:
Some gratification can be registered with the progress in the dental services in
1953. Graphs of the School Service on page 124 and statistical tables reveal a recovery
to approximately the level of 1948, and indicate that the tide may have turned in dental
recruitment and attainment. Such satisfaction as is felt, however, can only be with the
relative improvement in 1953, as much remains to be done before an efficient dental
care programme is in being to meet the Council's statutory obligations.
In 1953, the disentanglement of the Council's dental services from Part II (Hospital)
Services and from Part IV (General) Services was virtually completed, and it is now
possible to look more clearly at the three dental services operated by the Council,
namely, the school dental service, the maternity and child welfare dental service and
the dental service in boarding schools and residential establishments. It is proposed
therefore, to report in separate sections on each of these three services. A tabulation
of dental officer staff in school and maternity and child welfare services at the end of
the year is given in Table I (below).

School dental service
Towards the close of 1952 the Council adopted as policy the aim of establishing one
full-time dental surgery for each 3,000 schoolchildren on the school roll. To attain
this ration necessitates the employment of almost 150 full-time dental officers and the
provision of a similar number of surgeries.
Throughout 1953 efforts were made to reach the authorised interim establishment
of 93 dental officers and to acquire, adapt and equip additional premises. Considerable
progress was made, but applications for appointments were not numerous and most
were for part-time service only. On 28th December, 1953, the ratio attained was
1:6,500 for the county as a whole. Of the nine Health Divisions, the best was Division 2
where the ratio was 1:4,500 and at the other extreme was Division 7 where the ratio
was 1:9,000.
The considerable progress in 1953 made possible some improvement in the spreadover
treatment policy and permitted revisional treatment to a greater extent. It was not
yet practical to organise systematically this basic essential of a proper dental care service
and during the year revisional treatment was left largely to the discretion and selectivity
of individual dental officers. A proportion of children still received ameliorative treatment
only and the follow-up of all defaulters continued to be impracticable.
In 1953 the number of dental inspections in schools was greatly increased, being
two and a half times the number in 1952. At these inspections many parents elected
to have treatment carried out elsewhere than at the Council's treatment centres. This
factor, plus the increase in the Council's service, undoubtedly resulted in an increased
volume of dental attention for children during the year, but the actual amount of dental
treatment for children obtained in 1953 from sources other than the Council's is not
known.