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 1957
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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Difficulty in recruiting sufficient dental chairside assistants continued throughout
the year and untrained girls were frequency employed after necessarily brief in-service
training. I would again register my appreciation of the excellent and valuable assistance
given by chairside assistants and of the patience and forbearance of most dental officers
when sometimes forced by circumstances to forgo such assistance in busy sessions.
The comparative figures in Table (ii) reflect, in 1957, the impact of the inspectionexperiment
commented upon above when, for a period, the supply of new patients
faltered very seriously.
School dental service
The percentage of children found to require treatment remained almost static at
76.3 per cent. and gives cause for concern as does (in Table (iii)) the repeated low ratio
of permanent teeth conserved to permanent teeth extracted.
Table (ii)
| 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of inspection sessions held at schools | 2,008 | 2,111 | 1,354 |
| Number of children inspected at schools by dental officers | 202,242 | 213,957 | 120,440 |
| Number found to require treatment | 151,326 | 163,414 | 91,868 |
| Percentage requiring treatment | 74.8% | 76.4% | 76.3% |
| Additional number inspected at centres | 50,887 | 44,078 | 56,598 |
| Total number found to require treatment | 202,213 | 207,492 | 148,466 |
| Total cases treated | 121,362 | 115,587 | 102,568 |
| Attendances | 317,684 | 332,785 | 308,862 |
| Ordinary treatment sessions | 29,698 | 31,257 | 31,841 |
| General anaesthetic sessions | 1,578 | 1,708 | 1,594 |
| Temporary teeth extracted | 83,539 | 83,341 | 69,247 |
| Permanent teeth extracted | 16,527 | 19,992 | 18,273 |
| Temporary teeth restored by fillings | 45,256 | 43,474 | 45,509 |
| Permanent teeth restored by fillings | 122,097 | 129,931 | 117,148 |
| Fillings in temporary teeth | 48,075 | 46,088 | 48,477 |
| Fillings in permanent teeth | 135,384 | 144,746 | 131,071 |
| Other operations :— | |||
| temporary teeth | 62,496 | 58,808 | 58,021 |
| permanent teeth | 65,811 | 68,972 | 64,675 |
| Local anaesthetics for extraction | 17,341 | 16,195 | 14,404 |
| Local anaesthetics for conservative treatment | 7,130 | 9,494 | 10,718 |
| General anaesthetics | 36,099 | 38,740 | 34,019 |
| Cases for whom immediate treatment was completed | 13,744 | 11,614 | 10,415 |
| Cases discharged as dentally fit | 80,964 | 79,994 | 71,260 |
Table (iii) Ratio of permanent teeth restored to permanent teeth extracted in school children
| 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 |
| 1956 | 6.50 to 1 |
| 1957 | 6.41 to 1 |
Orthodontics
Orthodontic treatment figures (Table (iv)) for 1957 show that fewer cases were taken
on at special orthodontic sessions ; this is explicable as due to curtailment of reference of
new cases to allow accumulation of patients on treatment to be cleared. Considerable
headway was made, however, in furthering tentative arrangements with certain hospital
authorities to increase assistance with orthodontic demand and it was anticipated that
definite improvement would result in 1958.
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