London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1955
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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School dental service
For the third successive year since the Council approved the policy of attempting to
obtain a ratio of one full-time dental officer for each 3,000 children on the school roll
(i.e. about 150 dental officers), lack of recruits prevented attainment of even the interim
establishment of 93. The year under review produced further evidence of the need for
national consideration of dental man-power problems if there is to be any hope of
producing an efficient and sufficient dental service for children in Britain.
In 1955 the County ratio attained was 1 : 6,400, (1954, 1: 5,600) the rise being due
to increased school population. This ratio ranged from 1 : 4,400 in Health Division 4
to 1 : 8,000 in Health Divison 7. Against such odds the service struggled to spread treatment
evenly for the good of the greatest number. Systematic revisional treatment was
impracticable.
As would be expected with almost the same number of staff the years 1953, 1954
and 1955 produced very similar statistical results and the accompanying tables for the
respective sections of the dental service show only moderate fluctuations. I would
however, draw attention to certain indications.
In Table II the percentage of schoolchildren found to require treatment has, for the second successive year risen quite sharply and is shown as 11 per cent, higher than two years ago.
Table II
| 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of inspection sessions held at schools | 584 | 1,448 | 2,056 | 2,008 |
| Number of children inspected at schools by dental officers | 59,677 | 153,293 | 199,041 | 202,242 |
| Number found to require treatment | 38,069 | 97,736 | 139,955 | 151,326 |
| Percentage requiring treatment | 63.8% | 63.8% | 70.3% | 74.8% |
| Additional number inspected at centres | 71,452 | 76,291 | 67,604 | 50,887 |
| Total number found to require treatment | 109,521 | 174,027 | 207,559 | 202,213 |
| Total cases treated | 93,823 | 116,499 | 129,712 | 121,362 |
| Attendances | 202,571 | 269,061 | 300,912 | 317,684 |
| Ordinary treatment sessions | 19,563 | 27,366 | 29,022 | 29,698 |
| General anaesthetic sessions | 1,494 | 1,725 | 1,939 | 1,578 |
| Temporary teeth extracted | 96,561 | 103,922 | 108,825 | 83,539 |
| Permanent teeth extracted | 17,283 | 19,727 | 21,095 | 16,527 |
| Temporary teeth restored by fillings | 26,353 | 37,787 | 46,256 | 45,256 |
| Permanent teeth restored by fillings | 66,680 | 92,576 | 112,226 | 122,097 |
| Fillings in temporary teeth | 27,556 | 40,120 | 49,148 | 48,075 |
| Fillings in permanent teeth | 72,369 | 102,178 | 124,974 | 135,384 |
| Other operations—temporary teeth | 45,985 | 59,863 | 65,280 | 62,496 |
| Other operations—permanent teeth | 30,291 | 44,250 | 57,086 | 65,811 |
| Local anaesthetics for extraction | 24,667 | 27,020 | 21,216 | 17,341 |
| Local anaesthetics for conservative treatment | 3,753 | 7,072 | 8,352 | 7,130 |
| General anaesthetics | 33,448 | 37,887 | 43,899 | 36,099 |
| Cases for whom immediate treatment was completed | 13,135 | 15,196 | 17,474 | 13,744 |
| Cases discharged as dentally fit | 63,638 | 81,488 | 86,957 | 80,964 |
Total extractions, however, have fallen while fillings have increased and a gratifying figure is shown in Table III; the continued improvement in the ratio of permanent teeth restored to those extracted.
T able III
Ratio of permanent teeth restored to permanent teeth extracted in schoolchildren
| 1947 | 4.93 to 1 |
| 1948 | 4.58 to 1 |
| 1949 | 3.72 to 1 |
| 1950 | 3.29 to 1 |
| 1951 | 3.43 to 1 |
| 1952 | 3.86 to 1 |
| 1953 | 4.69 to 1 |
| 1954 | 5.32 to 1 |
| 1955 | 7.39 to 1 |