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DENTAL SERVICES
The Chief Dental Officer and Principal School Dental Officer reports as follows:
During 1958 the services available again met the demand rather than the need for
treatment. At dental inspections three out of every four school children were found to
require treatment but it was possible to carry out these inspections for less than half
the total school population. Only 97,300 or just over half the 180,117 school children
found on examination to need treatment received it at the Council's surgeries. Many
parents expressed the intention of having their children treated "privately" but there
is no evidence that their intentions were always implemented. Systematic revisional
treatment for children rendered "dentally fit" was impossible and the policy of spreadover
treatment for the greatest number was continued. (It should be noted that some
of the 97,300 patients treated in 1958 were "unofficial" revisional treatment patients,
and thus the number of children treated in the year was less than 97,300.)
Graphs of the number of inspection sessions and of treatment sessions are shown
below. Reference was made last year to an experiment to obtain more treatment
sessions by curtailing dental inspection sessions.
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