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DENTAL SERVICES
The Chief Dental Officer and Principal School Dental Officer reports as follows:
School dental service
In comparing results with those in 1960 not much change is observed. There were the
equivalent of four fewer full-time dentists and 42 fewer treatment sessions a week. There
was a slight increase, however, in the number of sessions devoted to dental inspections in
schools. The number of children found at these school inspections to require treatment
fell (for the fifth successive year) to 65.3 per cent.— a considerable improvement from the
1957 figure of 76.3 per cent. There is little doubt that this improvement indicates that more
children than formerly are receiving dental attention of a reparative type, rather than a
preponderance of extractions for pain relief. The indication is underlined if one looks at
table (ii) 'additional number inspected at centres'. These patients are known to be mainly
toothache and pain relief cases and the demands by such patients at our treatment centres
has steadily fallen from 56,598 cases in 1957 to 19,778 cases in 1961.
NUMBER OF INSPECTION SESSIONS AT SCHOOLS
86