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34
DENTAL SERVICE (MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE)
J.D. Palmer, B.D.S.(Lond.) L.D.S., R.C.S.(Eng.) Chief Dental Officer
The provision of free and fully comprehensive dental care for pre-school
children, nursing and expectant mothers is all part of the local authority
dental service about which some general comments are made in the Annual
Report of the School Dental Service.
If there is to be any hope of controlling dental disease in the community,
it is essential to start with the very young in order to establish correct
dietary and hygiene control, as well as the need for regular routine maintenance
to achieve dental health. This, of course, involves their parents and
also needs the co-operation and support of other health personnel, e.g.
doctors and health visitors, who have greater contact with these parents.
This liaison has been established and is developing well in the Borough. The
importance of good dental care for the pre-school child is becoming well
recognised as the cornerstone on which to build future dental health programmes.
The three year old birthday card scheme, which has been running at
Sanderstead for some three years, has been extended to Purley. The child
receives a colourful birthday card enclosing an informative letter containing
a realistic and simple message about dental care, for the parents to read
and, one hopes, apply.
At Waddon the idea of "toddlers parties" was successfully tried in conjunction
with the Health Visitor. Two groups of young children and their
parents were invited to the clinic on two afternoons, allowed freedom of the
surgery, saw some dental health education films and provided with 'dentally
acceptable foods' as a party tea. The 56 three year old children were all
examined, of whom 15 required treatment at that time. They were given
appointments, if required, or a check up arranged in four months time. All
the children arrived for their appointments or check up subsequently and this
idea of toddlers parties is being repeated.
The amount of treatment provided for the pre-school child has shown a
marked increase in 1970, with 34.6% more visits, 64.8% more teeth filled and
24.5% more courses of treatment completed in this group when compared with
1969 figures.
Details of treatment see Appendix, page 124.