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89
In those cases where parents fail to avail themselves of the
services of the school oculist, and refuse after repeated warnings
to obtain any other method of treatment, the Children's Act,
1908, will be enforced and a summons issued against the offenders.
It is hoped these objections will become fewer as the parents
grow more accustomed to medical inspection and its results.
Again, the individual character of spectacles is in no way
considered. One mother was indignant that her child's spectacles
were not considered suitable as she had "bought them from a
neighbour whose child was exactly the same age," and many
other ingenious excuses come before us in the course of a year's
work.
Teeth.
The problem of treatment of children with carious teeth
still remains a difficulty.
In the light of recent discussions on the advantages of
whole meal bread or the use of oatmeal as a food in preserving
the teeth, it would be interesting to learn to what extent this is
provided in the homes. Probably very little oatmeal is used in
the district. English children are not fond of brown bread and
oatmeal requires more careful and lengthy preparation than can
be given in those houses where the mothers go out to work.
The British Dental Association points out that neglect of
carious teeth represents a great amount of unnecessary suffering
inattention to work and loss of school time on the part of the
children. Dental caries is the precursor of more serious
conditions such as malnutrition, enlarged glands in the neck
which may pave the way for tuberculosis, and the general health
is impaired by the constant swallowing of septic material and
the germs of disease which abound in unhealthy mouths.
It has been shown that the serious complications of scarlet
fever are much more common and severe in the case of children
with diseased teeth and unhealthy mouths.