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34
REPORT OF DENTAL SURGEON.
To the School Medical Officer.
I have pleasure in hereunder presenting you with a report of
the Dental Department of the Municipal Clinic for the period
during the last year in which the position of Dental Surgeon to the
Council has been filled by me.
Routine of Work.
It is with gratification that it can be stated that, not alone,
has the work gone smoothly, but also that the time for treatment
has been used to the utmost extent. Occasions have occurred
where treatment has been accepted, yet appointments for such
treatment have not been kept. To obviate loss of working time in
this respect these conditions are now being considered with a view
to formulating some scheme whereby the department will still be
able to be fully busy when such circumstances occur in the future.
The department is working with a view to completing the circuit
of school treatment in the shortest time and it is hoped, if it be possible,
to thereby have the routine circuits of treatment more
frequently. This objective remains, however, to be governed by
the amount of work found to be undertaken, and the consents of
the parents to have it done.
Number of cases selected at Inspections for Treatment.
When studying the statistics, a large percentage of this class
would at first sight be apt to convey the impression that the oral
hygiene due to the teeth must be classified as bad. It should be
pointed out, however, that in the best attended dentition decay
may occur and unfortunately invariably does, in the course of the
year, but though it does, this does not necessarily place the mouth
in the class of bad hygienic condition, for the dentition, apart from
requiring one filling or two, may be otherwise perfect. Yet such
cases go to making the percentages high. On an average the oral
hygiene due to the teeth, in the inspections made, has appeared to
be very good. In cases where it has not been quite as satisfactory