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30
Dental Clinic.
By arrangement certain sessions at the Dental Clinic of the London County
Council are set aside for the inspection and treatment of mothers and children under
the maternity and child welfare scheme of the Borough Council. Table 22 contains
statistics for the year 1938.

The following report is submitted by the Dental Surgeon (Mr. J. Arthur Smith,
L.D.S., R.C.S.):—
"The dental clinic at Health Centre No. 2 has been working throughout
the year with satisfactory results. The need for dental treatment for expectant
and nursing mothers cannot be emphasised too much. Oral sepsis affects the
gastric mucosa, and infective foci in the jaws lead to untold infections and
damage which could so easily be prevented. Fortunately, the mothers are
attending the clinic regularly. It is most necessary, too, that the temporary
teeth of the children should receive attention and not be neglected in that
important period prior to coming under the care of the school dental surgeon.
Apart from other ills there is a definite relationship between a septic temporary
dentition and the chronically enlarged tonsil. The interest of the mothers
goes to show that they appreciate the services offered them by the Borough
Council."
Foot Clinic.
For some time attention had been directed to the need of making provision for
care of the feet, particularly in the case of the mothers attending the welfare centres,
many of whom were, in fact, more or less disabled as a result of conditions affecting
the feet, for which treatment could readily and effectually be provided. The Council,
therefore, decided that as from the 1st April, 1938, a foot clinic should be established
in the orthopaedic department of Health Centre No. 2 as part of the maternity and
child welfare scheme of the Borough. The fee charged per attendance is l/6d. or
1/- or 6d. according to the circumstances of the patient. In necessitous cases treatment
is provided free of cost. Sessions have been held twice weekly, but owing to
the demands on the clinic it will be necessary to arrange for an additional session
per week in the near future.
Miss Margaret Percy, M.L.I.Ch., the chiropodist in charge, submits the following
report on the first nine months' working of the clinic:—
"Actually the time has been too short to see anything very striking in
the way of progress, though from the beginning there has been a steady increase
in numbers. By way of general comment on the figures, which relate to the
period 1st April, 1938 to 31st December, 1938, I should like to say that, as
regards individual patients, progress has been quite steady. In the majority
of cases the conditions seen and dealt with are corns and callosities, the patient
paying regular visits on an average at intervals of a month. Undoubtedly the