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48
before it shows itself. The recognition of this fact is of the utmost
importance to the Committee when it comes to consider what
practical measures of a direct kind it should adopt in order to
remedy the state of affairs revealed by medical inspection. It
suggests at once certain lines of action which are both practical
and practicable.
Inspection and Treatment.
1. The inspection as well as the treatment should be done by a
dentist. It is important that the earliest signs of disease should
be detected. Inasmuch as a very large number of children will
have to be dealt with, it must be realised at the outset that the
principle to be carried out is the greatest good to the greatest
number, by which it is meant that an undue time must not be
spent upon individual cases, as, for example, in carrying out
elaborate root treatment extending over several visits. The early
signs can only be detected by a dentist with the aid of the probe
and mirror. It is quite possible to fill a tooth directly it becomes
carious without causing the slightest pain to the child. The
success which will attend any effort towards improving the teeth
depends directly upon how near one can get to this painless
treatment.
2. Inspection should not be delayed later than during the
sixth year, and attention should be concentrated, in particular, upon
the permanent set of teeth immediately upon their eruption.
Whilst under an ideal system every school child should have
its teeth regularly attended to, it is evident in large centres of
population that the treatment must at first be limited to a comparatively
small number, and for this reason some age limit must
be imposed. The key to the situation is the preservation of the
first permanent or so-called six-year molars. It is a most natural
thing to say that the six-year molar appears at six years of age
and probably becomes carious by the seventh year, therefore all
that has to be done is to treat the seven-year children to save