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Chiropody Service in School
(See Report under Section 28 National Health Service).
REPORT OF THE DENTAL OFFICER, CITY OF LONDON
"The year has continued to show the trend noticed last year, which indicated that in all
sectors and age groups seen in the dental section, a certain plateau of oral health has been
reached. (This situation applied up to Autumn 1970, for the reason mentioned below). There was
even an overall slight reduction in treatment needed. This was not so much due to a reduction in
dental decay, as to treatment overtaking the disease.
In the Autumn it was announced that increased charges for dental treatment under theNational
Health Services were to be introduced and this precipitated an ever increasing demand for
treatment, which by the end of the year was putting a considerable strain on the dental facilities
which could be offered. Indeed some mouths were seen which had last been inspected some 10-20
years previously and presumably the owners wanted to redress the previous failure to take
advantage of N.H.S. dentistry, before the charges were increased.
It is perhaps unwise to forecast the impact of these increased charges, but it seems likely
that there will be a falling off in demand from those who need treatment most and, considerable
apprehension must be felt about the effect of reducing the age of exemption from charges, from
21 to 18. It is during these years that young people often have a predisposition to dental decay
and gum problems. It is also the time when the young person has to think of routine dental
inspections for him or herself, rather than having a parental reminder to do so, and having to pay
for it is not going to encourage care of the mouth. Older persons who find they have let a visit to
the dentist get overdue, may well let things go on still longer, and perhaps beyond repair.
School Dental Service; Inner London Education Authority
Pre-School Children
School Entrants
Infants
Juniors
All these showed a slight reduction in treatment required, although as mentioned above it
was mostly a case, of treatment catching up with dental disease.
As before — those children, seen in the School Dental Service, who live in the City, still,
for the most part, present with the worst mouths. The only way to alter this situation is for their
parents to be meticulous in arranging for 2 or 3 visits to the dentist per annum.
Dental Health Education
Following School re-buiIding compietion, it has again been possible to renew group dental health
education and the I.L.E.A. dental health education pays regular visits to the school, which supplements
individual instruction given in the dental chair, and helps to keep the subject constantly
' before the chiIdren.
F luoridation
Increasing the level of fluoridation in drinking water to an acceptable level could transform
the dental scene in this country, as has been shown in those areas where it has been tried.
However, whilst the process is gradually spreading across the world, it has not happened
here in London, one of the world's largest cities, and until it does, the failure to do so will be
reflected in the discomfort of dental disease and its mounting cost to the community.