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they fail to return for the fitting of artificial dentures, thereby being
compelled to carry on with much impaired powers of mastication.
There are about forty mothers who have been treated one or two
years ago and for whom artificial dentures were advised and estimated
for, yet in spite of every encouragement they have failed to
return to be fitted. It is suspected that in most cases their failure
is due to the fact that their husbands have grudged the small
amounts likely to be charged for the dentures.
The number of mothers actually treated during the year was
241. For this number 1,063 visits to the Dentist at the Health
Centre were required. The treatment consisted of extractions,
with the subsequent fitting of artificial dentures, fillings and scalings.
The extractions numbered 1,908—a very large figure which gives
an indication of the bad state of the mouths as regard caries and
sepsis of many of the cases treated. Fillings totalled 197. Scaling
was done in 50 cases. One patient had a large cyst of the upper
jaw successfully removed. Ten cases of localised pyorrhoea were
treated by the surgical removal of infected pockets. Dentures,
full and partial sets, were supplied to 114 mothers.
MATERNAL MORTALITY.
In the summary of the scheme of maternity and child welfare
are specified the measures directed paiticularly towards combating
the mortality which ensues in mothers in consequence of childbirth.
A reduction in maternal mortality can only be accomplished as a
result of attention to all the factors concerned and a recognition
of their bearing in each particular case. All maternal deaths
occurring within the Borough are investigated in association with
the medical practitioners in attendance and reports are forwarded
to the Maternal Mortality Committee. These reports prove
valuable in two ways. They encourage the medical practitioner
to survey the case after the event and stimulate his thoughts in
the direction of ascertaining if any other procedure open to him
or to anyone else in charge of the patient might have averted disaster
and while all the reports may not prove of value some of them may
lead to broad generalizations on the subject by the Maternal
Mortality Committee which may be of real guidance to the general
practitioner and those interested in the whole question.