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205
numerical staffing of a service on this basis would mean
an increase in most cases, but it has been established
that an increase in staff is invariably accompanied by an
increased acceptance rate, and if the ideal of one Dental
Surgeon to 2,500/3,000 school children be achieved
(as was urged by Sir George Newman) the acceptance
rate may well be so universal as to make a refusal the
greatest rarity. This has been demonstrated by the
Borough of Cambridge where such a ratio has been in
force for some years.
A Dental Surgeon who attends mainly to the dental
needs of children should endeavour to visualize the
outlook of his patients on their own particular interests.
To have a knowledge of the literature of the young and
the very young, to be able to discuss from folk dancing
to the orthodoxy of the Test batsmen is quite as useful
with a patient as the deftness of technique which
minimises pain. If these can be accomplished, all or in
part, then the operator is well on the way to that
relationship in which the patient knows and speaks to
the operator as Mr.—, for such a relationship usually
indicates that the problems of dental treatment are
purely professional and never personal.
The orthodontic treatment carried out at the Clinics
is well to the fore and it may be regarded as a sign of
the advancement in dental education that parents not
only consent to such treatment for their children with
great willingness but seek advice and treatment of their
own accord.
The dental condition of those children attending the
nursery schools is being watched with considerable
attention. Dental cleanliness, which is part of the
nursery school routine, and the influence of the teachers
in advising early treatment where necessary should have
a marked beneficial effect, and the first dental inspection
as pupils proper should furnish interesting results.