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45
such cases in the General Practitioner Service has been attributed
to the introduction of certain charges for appliances, this factor
can not be said to have led to any abnormal demand in Local
Authority Services. A possible explanation would appear to be
that a point of saturation was reached during the free treatment
period, and time will therefore have to be allowed to achieve a
further build up in public requirements.
The Pre-School Child
The number of children referred from all sources during the
year was 557, compared with 671 in 1952. Though this decrease
is to a certain extent the result of the falling birth rate, an
additional factor has been the progressive reduction in the number
of Day Nurseries previously operating in the Borough. The
presence of these institutions has provided a most useful field of
supervision for children no longer attending Welfare Centres. In
this respect it is hoped that the inauguration of further nursery
classes at certain Primary Schools will help to make some redress
until the programme for Nursery Schools can be put into effect.
Though contacts obtained through Welfare Centres themselves
have in the past been disappointing, it is felt that increased
publicity or. the part of the Health Visitors and voluntary workers
would pay a worth-while dividend by encouraging parents to seek
earlier advice and treatment.
As stated previously, the major problem in this branch of
dentistry is to gain access to these children during the critical three
to four year period when systematic inspection should be
commenced. In practice it is found that even "enlightened"
parents are too prone to be guided by their own visual observations,
with the inevitable result that many cavities are found to
be beyond repair when eventually brought to notice. The condition
of many mouths at the first school inspection is a constant
reminder of the fact that until a far greater degree of supervision
call be excercised during the pre-school period, there can be no
satisfactory solution to the problem of safeguarding the
foundation teeth.