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100
REPORT OF DENTAL SURGEON.
To the Medical Officer of Health, June, 1934.
Borough of Barking.
Sir,
I have the honour to present the report of the School Dental Service for the year
ended December 31st, 1933. It has not been possible to inspect and treat the school
population during the year under review.
The most formidable hindrances to more frequent routine inspection and treatment
are:—
(1) The large number of patients requiring more than average treatment;
(2) The increased number of casual patients who present a condition, the treatment
for which is the immediate extraction of teeth under nitrous oxide anaesthesia.
The former does not apply in any calculable degree to the pupils of the older schools
of Barking, but is represented mainly by newcomers to the recently erected schools,
especially new senior pupils who arrive with one or two years to go before reaching
the school leaving age. These pupils, being impressed by the necessity of leaving
school with sound teeth, bring for attention the accumulation of neglect, and six to nine
fillings involving at least a corresponding number of visits is not infrequent. Against
the casual, nothing can be said while a system exists which permits an unwilling parent
to refuse conservative treatment for the child and to re-visit the Clinic at a later period
with the child as a casual patient needing extractions. It should not be considered
harsh nor unreasonable if a rule be introduced to the effect that refusal of treatment
after inspection and advice should mean refusal for the year, and that treatment required
as the result of such refusal be obtained from sources other than the Clinic.
Preventive or prophylactic treatment is of the greatest benefit both to the patient
and the operator, and should form a definite part of any campaign concerned with
dental hygiene. Unfortunately, with the staff at its present strength, practical chairside
work absorbs the whole of the professional service to the exclusion of lectures to
children approaching school leaving age, especially girls, women's organisations, and
any undertaking, the members of which can be approached on the subject of children's
welfare. The dissemination of simple knowledge and its practical adoption would
prove far more economic than the time spent in the surgery by the operator engaged
in the expensive correction of dental errors.
I cannot speak too highly of the energetic co-operation of the operative and nursing
staff at the Clinic, the interest and kindly assistance of the Heads of schools, and the
helpful consideration of the Health Visitors during the year, and I would like to record
my appreciation of their unstinted service.