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During the year 1035 you have, together with the Public Health and Maternity
and Child Welfare Committee, decided that a third dental officer is necessary.
I look forward in my next Annual Report to be able to record an increase in the
scope of this important work.
There can be no doubt that the treatment of dental defects is now recognised
to be more important than it was at one time considered, but even yet sufficient
importance is not attached to this branch of work. As and when the public
realise how necessary it is for every child to leave school with clean and healthy
teeth, that is as and when the increased demand for this service grows, I know that
you will meet that demand. Speaking, however, from the standpoint of preventive
medicine, I cannot help feeling that, side by side with this curative work, and even
dominating the curative work, we ought to preach and teach the care of the teeth.
Even now a very large number of people object to such things as fillings to save
teeth, and are only willing for dental work to be carried out when extractions are
needed.
(h) Orthopcedic and Postural Defects.—Mr. B. Whitchurch Howell, Orthopaedic
Surgeon, attends at the Orthopaedic Clinic once a month and you have decided to
employ a whole-time Masseuse instead of a part-time one. You have arrangements
for children requiring surgical treatment to be received in Brookfield Hospital and
other hospitals where orthopaedic surgery is carried out.
A summary of the work done appears on pages 136 to 139, an analysis being
given under Group IV of Table IV on page 155.
(i) Heart Disease and Rheumatism.—The treatment of Heart Disease and
Rheumatism is not in all respects satisfactory. To a certain extent this is because
medical officers have not sufficient evidence on this important problem ; to a certain
extent it is because the problem is a very difficult one indeed, and to a certain extent
it is because the symptoms of Rheumatism are so vague and fleeting that the public
do not appreciate the importance of the question. If only children suffering from
Rheumatism had a rash like those who are suffering from Scarlet Fever the diagnosis
would be easy, the attention of the public would be called dramatically, and I have
no doubt that with a larger experience medical officers would know far more than
they know today. Rheumatic Fever is allied to Scarlet Fever, but its signs are less
distinguishing, and its results unfortunately are conspicuously worse. It is, I think,
safe to say when once a child has suffered from Rheumatic Disease of the Heart