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at the end of the year, embracing those found not requiring any
treatment and those actually treated, totalled 9,442. This figure
gives a percentage of 73 with sound mouths, which should compare
very favourably with any similar school population.
" The dental work carried out resolves itself into the elimination
of oral sepsis by extraction, this being done in a thorough manner
on the first inspection of the younger children, from six to nine
years of age. For the older children coming under subsequent
examination conservative work is the chief form of treatment.
" The number of temporary teeth extracted was 8,149, the
number being smaller than the preceding year by 709. Extractions
of permanent teeth still remain too high, due to casual cases,
newcomers to the district, and former objectors who attend the
Centres after much damage to the teeth has occurred and when
relief of pain forces them to the dentist. Roughly half of these
extractions were executed for irregular dentitions. In nearly all
cases for regulation, the extraction of one to four premolar teeth
is necessary to obtain the correct occlusion of the teeth and jaws.
The number of extractions of permanent teeth in both groups
was 1,097, which is greater than in the previous year by 138.
" The conservative work included fillings in six-year-old
molars and other teeth. The ratio of fillings in the former to the
latter is nearly 40 to 1. Possibly, irregular or abnormal metabolic
changes at the age of six influence this difference in the incidence
of dental decay.
" The number of permanent fillings inserted was 6,409, a
little greater than in 1932. Temporary fillings totalled 648, again
a small increase over the preceding year.
" The number of entrants found to have sound mouths was
690 or over 50 per cent, of those examined for the first time. The
number of children leaving school during the year with sound mouths
was 679 out of a total of 919 children examined, or 74 per cent.
This percentage could be bettered but for the difficulty in getting
the parents to appreciate the need for treatment of every defect
found at the yearly inspection in the later years of school life.
Many parents do not present their children for treatment because
they may have had treatment only the previous year, and do not