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of school work to a minimum. As in previous audiometric
surveys, children found to have a significant hearing loss
will, after examination by the medical staff, be referred, if
necessary, to the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic at the West
Hill Hospital, Dartford. The services provided by this clinic
leave little to be desired. Appointments are made promptly
and there is an excellent liaison between the specialists and
their staff and ourselves.
The staffing position in the School Dental Service is
still unsatisfactory, arising from the difficulty in recruiting
dental staff. There is no easy solution to this nation-wide
problem and relief may only be forthcoming with the
appointment of dental auxiliaries in accordance with the
provisions of the new Dentists Act. It may well be
there are certain dental procedures which could be handed
over to technicians but it will always be necessary for
the latter to work under the close supervision of dental
surgeons. It is regrettable that such a scheme should be
necessary but the alternative appears to be an indefinite
continuation of the present shortage which places great
difficulties in the path of any comprehensive scheme of
preventive dentistry. A second possible measure which would
require governmental action is the fluoridation of water
supplies with a view to preventing the onset of dental caries
and if this had the desired effect, the available denial staffs
would be in a better position to cope more adequately with
the smaller burden of caries resulting therefrom. Il is not
sufficiently recognised that the water supplying this area is,
practically, devoid of fluorine while there is growing experimental
evidence that the presence of this element in the
proportion of about one part per million in the water supply
may make the teeth of children much less liable to decay.
Experimental fluoridation projects are in operation in a
number of areas in the United Kingdom and it is hoped that
this area will one day reap the benefit of the results of these
investigations.
Unfortunately, both are long term projects, which are
unlikely to affect the present unsatisfactory position for a
number of years to come. Of more immediate assistance
would be the recognition that excess of sugar is an enemy
of dental health in children. At a recent conference on
preventive dentistry it was generally agreed that sugar taken
at meal times is comparatively harmless to the teeth but
that the frequent eating of sweets and the sucking of iced
lollies in between meals were the chief dangers. Regular
cleaning of the teeth is essential but one often meets cases
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