View report page

Medical Treatment. 125
and because it was felt that they ought to be treated
as early as possible after admission to school and so
avoid the disability arising in the period between their
admission and the time of dental inspection at 6 to 8
years old. In the present system the intention is to
inspect and treat all children on admission to school
each year, all children when once treated being inspected
each subsequent year, and treated if necessary. In
this way dental supervision and treatment will be extended
until all school children, no matter what their
age may be, are dealt with. Urgent cases of sepsis
or toothache in the older children not coming within
the immediate purview of the dentists at present are
treated as occasion arises.
The arrangement of making a dental inspection of
the "entrants" lessens the administration work for
the Dentists follow the school medical inspection
of the same group of children, and the list for the one
is the same for the other.
Table IVdI gives an idea of the extent of the
Dentists' work. The children inspected numbered
3,746, embracing 3,554 routine cases or re-inspections
and 192 special or urgent cases. Of the former 2,014,
and all the latter were referred for treatment. In all
2,430 children were treated. The particulars of the
time devoted to dental treatment and the operations
undertaken are indicated in Table IVd2. It will
be seen that 25 sessions or half-days were devoted to
inspection, and 208 to treatment. The number of
permanent teeth extracted was 147, and filled, 1912 ;
the number of temporary teeth extracted 2738, and filled,
21. The total number of fillings was thus 1,933. A
general anaesthetic was administered for extractions
in 292 cases.