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3. Cases referred by a medical officer and who are about
to be sent to a special school or convalescent home.
4. Cases of acute oral sepsis.
5. Cases of injury.
The one exception to the above categories is the condition
in which, following an accident, a front tooth is damaged beyond conservative
aid. In this case a denture is normally supplied to
replace the extracted tooth, in order that the cost shall not fall on the
parent. This would be the case if the denture were supplied under
the General Dental Service.
Orthodontic Service.
The demands placed upon this section of the School Dental
Service are very heavy, therefore inevitably there is a long list
of patients seeking treatment. The appointment of an additional
part-time orthodontist which was effected at the end of the year
should ease the burden considerably in this direction.
In addition to the orthodontic work undertaken by the orthodontists
appointed exclusively for this type of work, a small proportion
of the time of the dental officers is devoted to orthodontic
cases. The overall figures show that 148 fixed appliances were
inserted compared with 199 removable appliances. 170 of these
removable appliances were supplied by the good offices of the Royal
Dental Hospital of London, without cost.
X-Ray Scheme.
The X-ray department commenced operation at Cherington
House Clinic in September. This was a very much needed service
as many patients had long journeys to make previously, when the
majority of the X-ray work was referred to the Hillingdon Hospital
and to a lesser degree to the Central Middlesex Hospital, Park Royal.
In order that the dental officers' time should be devoted
entirely to those operations in dentistry which it is not possible
to delegate to an ancillary worker, a dental attendant was trained
in the taking and processing of dental radiographs at the Hillingdon
Hospital. This dental attendant commenced X-ray duties in
September. In November an additional dental attendant, who
had extensive experience in radiography, was appointed to assist
the new part-time orthodontist. These two radiographers had
taken 632 radiographs by the end of the year.