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137
APPENDIX B.
[copy]
Report by the School Medical Officer on the Development of
School Dental Treatment.
In accordance with the instructions of the Sub-Committee, I beg
to report on the present arrangements for providing dental treatment for
elementary school children, and on proposals for increasing the efficiency
of the scheme. The report is of necessity somewhat lengthy and detailed,
and it is perhaps desirable to direct attention at this early stage
to the fact that full efficiency can be obtained only by expansion of the
present scheme.
(A). Conditions of a Satisfactory Dental Scheme.
In the Annual Report for 1921 of the Chief Medical Officer of
the Board of Education, the requirements for a Dental Scheme satisfactory
to the Board are set out. The following is a brief summary of
the conditions:—
(1) The general and administrative arrangements to be under the
control of the School Medical Officer.
(2) Dental Inspection to be carried out by a qualified dentist,
preferably the dentist undertaking the treatment. Inspection
to take place on the school premises, in school hours.
(3) Attention should be concentrated in the first instance on the
group of children aged 5—7 years.
(4) After the first year the dental scheme should provide for the
examination or re-examination of all children in the age
groups previously inspected by the dentist and for such treatment
or supplementary treatment as may foe necessary. The
annual re-inspection of children is as important as the inspection
and treatment of new cases.
(5) Accurate records of inspection and treatment to be kept.
(6) Treatment should be conservative, the bulk of the work being
by filling rather than extraction.
(7) A nurse should assist the dentist at the time of treatment.
(8) The dental scheme should be appropriately co-ordinated with
the whole scheme of treatment devised by the authority.
(9) With the development of the scheme, the Authority will need
to secure that the dental staff remains adequate to meet the
expansion of their duties.
(10) The Board's Medical Officer adds "that no dental scheme
can be considered satisfactory which fails to approach the
problem from thle preventive standpoint."
(B). Present Arrangements.
(1) Age Groups Inspected. Only one age group, viz., 6—7 years,
is inspected by the dentists. A notice is sent to the parents of children
of this age in need of dental attention, and treatment is provided in
rooms in the basement of the Town Hall. There are two rooms—a
waiting room and a clinic room, with one operating chair and the usual
equipment. These two rooms are also used twice a week for the eye
clinic, so that no dental clinic can at present be held on the two sessions
in each week reserved for that purpose.
Of the children aged 6 years needing dental treatment in 1922, 43 per
cent. obtained treatment at the dental clinic and 1 per cent. through other
sources. The remainder did not make use of the treatment offered.