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DENTAL SERVICES
The Chief Dental Officer and Principal School Dental Officer reports as follows:
School dental service
In 1959, 215,637 children (49.8 per cent. of the school population) were inspected at
schools by dental officers and the percentage found to require treatment again fell by
3 per cent. (to 70.5 per cent.) compared with that of the preceding year (table (ii)).
This improvement in dental health of the schoolchildren for two consecutive years is
the brightest point in the year's survey, as the dental state of the proportion of children
examined may be assumed to be symptomatic of the whole.
As the number of dental officers employed by the Council fell during the year, it is a fair
assumption that the improvement is attributable in some part to an increasing measure of
outside help. At dental inspections many parents continued to indicate their intention to
obtain treatment elsewhere, and it would appear that a number do so. The lessened response
during the year to invitations to attend the Council's centres may also be evidence of this
trend towards private or National Health Service practices. This resulted in a slight fall in
average sessional attendances, reflected, in turn, however, by the gratifying increase in the
proportion of conservation work within our service. Table (iii) shows the highest ratio yet
obtained of permanent teeth restored to permanent teeth extracted in school children and is
another bright gleam in the mass of statistical data.
NUMBER OF INSPECTION SESSIONS AT SCHOOLS
107