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in the water supply may make children much less liable to
dental decay. I should like to refer again to the danger of the
excessive consumption of sweets and other carbohydrate foods
especially between meals which is considered by those best
qualified to judge to be the cause of the increase in dental
decay among children experienced in the past 15 years. It is
reported by one of our dental surgeons that, during 1958,
1.8 per cent of the children aged 11-15 years treated in her
clinic required dentures. In the majority of these cases the
latter consisted of between one and five teeth partial dentures
and in one case (a boy of 15) a 12 tooth denture both upper
and lower. So far, in 1959, until the end of July, 3.4 per
cent of children attending the dental clinic required dentures
representing a considerable increase over the year under review.
During the year a considerable amount of time was spent
in the immunisation of schoolchildren against poliomyelitis
and tuberculosis (B.C.G. vaccination). That there was no loss
of efficiency in the general health supervision of the children
is due, entirely, to the hard work and devotion to duty of the
staff concerned, both medical and non-medical.
It may justifiably be said that, in the Borough of Bexley,
a full range of services is provided and is referred to in the
body of the report. New developments come slowly and progress
cannot be judged solely by new methods of treatment
or ascertainment or by the provision of new buildings and
equipment important as these are. The efficiency of the School
Health Service depends, in the main, on the breadth of outlook
of its practitioners and on a full appreciation of the complex
hereditary and environmental factors affecting the
emotional, intellectual and physical development of the
child; on a recognition that normality is not a fixed point
but a range of variability which may be quite wide. Seen in
this way, differing rates of growth and development, body
build and patterns of behaviour may all come within the
ambit of what is normal. There is need, therefore, for a
sense of proportion, to know when action is required and
when it is wise and safe not to interfere in the knowledge that
conditions will straighten themselves out given patience and
a guiding hand. Progress depends, therefore, among other
things, on our getting to know more and more about children
in health and disease and the watch for the beginnings of
disturbed function which may be the forerunners of disease.
This may not be spectacular work but who would deny its
paramount importance?
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