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18
It has been said that the only hope for dentistry lies in prevention,
perhaps only half the truth because treatment - and first class treatment at
that - will always be necessary as an integral part of community dental
care to control the disease which cannot be prevented. This involves close
co-operation between the public and dental services based on mutual trust
and understanding. This approach forms the basis of the dental services in
Croydon.
During 1970 we have been fortunate in generally having a full complement
and unchanging dental staff who have worked hard and well. We have
also enjoyed good co-operation from teachers, health educators and public
health personnel which has meant that it has been possible to provide a
good local authority dental service.
Dental Inspection
49,299 (93.7%) children out of a school population of 52,633 were inspected.
It was also possible to increase the number of children reinspected
during the year to 8,772, an increase of over 60% on the previous year.
These are easily the best results yet obtained in the school dental service.
The routine inspections in schools produced an acceptance rate for
treatment of 25.9%.
Dental Treatment for Schoolchildren
The problem of gross dental sepsis in neglected mouths and involving
much surgery time in relief of pain and multiple extractions has been
largely overcome in Croydon. Patients are wanting, and usually able to
obtain, maintenance care to preserve their teeth. However the overall
numbers found to require some treatment on inspection rose from 45.6% in
1969 to 48.9% in 1970, which suggests a continuing problem in terms of
treatment services as the standard of dental health demanded improves.
The trends in treatment have all been towards keeping teeth with a 33.7%
increase in the number of teeth filled, increases in other restorative procedures
and 16.2% more courses of treatment completed than the previous
year.
Extractions have also increased, but related to the greater number of
patients the proportion is indeed less than last year, and the ratio to
teeth filled is continuing to improve.
In 1960 72 teeth were extracted for every 100 teeth filled
In 1965 47 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,,
In 1969 27.5 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,,
In 1970 23 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,,
In addition the extraction figures include some 313 extractions on 144
patients who were referred by practitioners for treatment under general
anaesthesia, so that the extraction and general anaesthetic figures are
relatively higher.