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179
advantage, might exert some influence and abstain from the practice
of giving their children so many "tit-bits" between meals.
It is to be feared that the majority of parents are apt to forget that
although the child may get relief by the extraction of painful teeth
the efficiency of the masticatory apparatus is thereby impaired, and
various symptoms of ill-health may result from the child's inability
to chew its food thoroughly. The truth of the maxim that what
is good for the teeth is good for the body, and, conversely, that
what is bad for the teeth (such as sticky foods) is also bad for the
body, is becoming more evident from the increase in dental disease
and child ailments. Approximately 70 per cent. of school children
suffer from dental defects, and 20 per cent. are found to require
treatment for such defects as mal-nutrition, rickets and rickety
deformities, enlarged tonsils and adenoids. The greater part of
these diseases is preventable, and correct diet and proper hygiene
(including oral hygiene) would do much to improve the health of
young school children. It is unnecessary to stress the fact that
many more children than at present should attend dental clinics
during the pre-school period, so that dental disease could be
eliminated before they start their school life.
For several years past, owing to the increase in curative treatments
the dental officers' visits to the centres have been curtailed,
and in 1936 only three visits were made, when the dental officers
in addition to examining the children gave them instruction on the
care of the teeth. These visits are especially valuable because they
present an opportunity to interest mothers in dental matters.
During the coming year many more visits to the centres will be
possible.
At present most of the dental officers' time is spent in reparative
treatments, and it is important that more sessions should be
devoted to the synteretic aspect of this work, even if it is to be at
expense of time that should have been given to curative efforts.
lnoat urgent problem in connection with dental schemes for
Ae young child is to provide efficient prophylactic teaching for
mothers with a view to reducing the prevailing amount of dental
disease in the pre-school child.
It is desirable that the pre-school child should be "followed
up when the initial treatment is completed, and after a period
of sixmonths an appointment should be made for re-examination
and further treatment if necessary. Such a system will be put into
practice during the coming year and that its effect will be that more
teeth will be conserved and fewer extracted.