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40
DENTAL TREATMENT (MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE)
P.G. Oliver Esq., L.D.S., Chief Dental Officer
Expectant and nursing mothers are referred for this purpose
by Doctors and Consultants at Ante- and Post-Natal Clinics;
reference for such patients can also be arranged through their
own medical advisors. In the case of children under school age
introduction is effected via Welfare Centres or as a result of
requests by Health Visitors. By far the greater proportion of
such children, however, continue to be seen following application
by parents to respective Dental Clinics. Treatment in all
categories is carried out at School Dental Clinics and is closely
integrated with work on the Education side.
As in the case of the School Dental Service, extended dental
provision within the National Health Service has also led to a
progressive change in the role of those Local Authority Services
catering primarily for the expectant and nursing mother. The
ensuing benefits, though not at first apparent to all, are now
specially noticeable at the local level.
Improved social environment has during recent years produced
a fuller awareness of the value of regular dental supervision in
its relationship to personal health, and where adequate "outside"
facilities exist this has in turn led to a more extensive use of
the General Practitioner Service; as a direct result of this enlightened
attitude there has been a corresponding falling off in
demand for attention, devoted mainly to the period of pregnancy.
Remarking on this trend in his latest Report the Chief
Medical Officer to the Ministry of Health underlines this change
and states that "It is more satisfactory that women should be
under the regular care of their own dentist than that they
should seek priority treatment periodically."
Largely as a result of this reduced patronage staff at local
clinics have been relieved of much of the "tedium" of former
years and are now better placed to meet the needs of those
prospective mothers newly arrived in the district, who for one
reason or another are unable to secure the priority which their
condition demands; in the case of those approaching their confinement
this is of particular importance.
Because of improved working conditions a far fuller range of
treatment is now possible for the individual patient and more
time can be devoted to the therapeutic and preventive side of
the work, for which this Service was originally designed.