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17
DENTAL SERVICE
Mr. B.J. West, Principal School Dental Officer
Dentistry, along with most professions, is continually evolving and its
standards improving. Originally dentistry consisted of simply extracting
aching teeth, usually as a fairground spectacle. Since 1921, but especially
since the introduction of the National Health Service, the emphasis has been
directed to saving teeth wherever possible by the use of various filling
materials. Consequently the proportion of teeth filled to teeth extracted has
steadily risen year by year. This has required renewed efforts by the dental
educators to change the attitude on the part of the public and promote a
greater sense of dental awareness.
We are now on the verge of the next logical stage in the evolution of
dentistry, that of the prevention of dental disease, both dental caries and
periodontal disease, and considerable effort and thought is now being devoted
to find the most effective ways of achieving this. Among the proven methods
of reducing the prevalence of dental caries is the adjustment of fluoride in the
domestic water supply to one part per million. This, however, is being seriously
hampered by social-political factors and although considered the most effective
method of reducing dental caries by the vast majority ofthe medical and
dental professions, it is unlikely to be introduced as a large scale public
health measure for some time. Other methods of treating teeth with fluoride
such as topical application, fluoride tooth pastes, fluoride in school milk and
in tablet form, are being tried with varying degrees of success but cannot be
as effective as the adjustment of fluoride in water, being dependent on personal
effort on the part ofthe public.
Despite all the efforts being made in the field of preventive dentistry, the
major cause of caries and periodontal disease is the abysmal lack of oral hygiene
among the public at large and until the standard of personal oral hygiene is considerably
improved, even routine conservation of teeth is largely a waste of
time, effort and resources. It is essential therefore to educate the mass of the
general public to keep their mouths clean before any of the other preventive
measures will have any worthwhile effect.
The dental service in Croydon is playing its part in the education of
parents and children in oral hygiene and general dental awareness by personal
contact, dental education lectures and in-service training of school teachers,
and by providing facilities forthe dental scientists to further their researches.
The continuing improvement and development of the dental services in the
Borough received a considerable setback this year through lack of staff. The
year started well but the resignation of five dental officers in mid-summer and
the inability to find suitable replacements has inevitably led to the accustomed
service being modified. The start ofthe coming year should see an improvement
in the staffing situation but the restoration of a fully staffed service will
take some time.