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28
DENTAL SERVICE (MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE)
B.J. West, Esq., L.D.S., B.C.S.(Eng.) - Chief Dental Officer
It is important that these services should be included as part of the
general report of the Dental Service in Croydon, as they play an ever increasing
role in the provision by the Borough of a community dental service;
a service which is likely to become more important as the plans to reorganise
the health services become apparent.
The treatment of the pre-school child increases yearly. That this is so
augers well for the long term effort to control dental disease, for it is only
by establishing correct methods of oral hygiene and dietary control at the
earliest possible age, that the hold of dental decay can be broken. In addition
a young child will more readily accept treatment if he has become accustomed
to the dental surgeon and the surgery by frequent visits before any treatment
is necessary.
Ideally, children should have a dental inspection as soon as possible
after their third birthday. Unfortunately, this service is only available on a
routine basis at our Sanderstead Clinic and to a more limited extent at Waddon.
It has been possible to extend the service to these two centres because of the
active co-operation of the Health Visitors concerned, and it is hoped to cover
the remaining parts of the Borough as soon as possible. In the meantime inspections
and treatment are readily available for pre-school children at all the
Croydon dental clinics on demand.
The amount of dental treatment for the under five year olds again in
creased during the year with a 31.6% increase in the total number of visits, a
5.4% increase in the number of teeth filled and a 33% increase in the number
of courses of treatment completed, compared with 1970.
The number of expectant and nursing mothers seen during the year remained
about the same as the previous year, though there was an increase of
22.1% in the number of teeth filled and a similar drop in the number of teeth
extracted for these patients. The proportion of mothers to pre-school children
has been decreasing during the last few years. For example:
In 1951 60.1 mothers were seen for every 100 pre-school children
„ 1961 91 „ „ „ „
„ 1969 23.9 „ „ „ „
„ 1970 19.8 „ „ „ „
„ 1971 15.2 „ „ „ „
This is an indication that more pre-school children are being brought to
the Borough's clinics for treatment and that more mothers are being treated
in general practice. This trend should be encouraged as it allows for a much
better continuation of treatment in the future for each type of patient.
The figures for the treatment of the priority groups will be found on
page 106.