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25. SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE
The School Dental Service has the following functions:—
(1) Routine dental inspection of children at school.
(2) The provision of treatment or the ensuring that children found to have
defective teeth attend private dentists.
(3) Dental health education.
The service functions from all but five of the Council's clinics and is in the charge
of the Chief Dental Officer who has an establishment of 13 dental officers, two of
whom are orthodontists. We are at present unfortunately three dental officers below
establishment.
As a result, seven clinics are run on a full-time basis and six part-time (varying
from eight sessions a week to three sessions a week). In four clinics, two surgeries
are working part of the week when the orthodontist as well as the dental officer is
in attendance.
DENTAL INSPECTION
The aim is to inspect all children at school at least once a year, but shortage of
staff has prevented this being achieved. The figures for inspection during the year
were:—
Number of inspections 25,052
Percentage of school children inspected 66
Number found to require treatment 13,375
TREATMENT
The parents of approximately 50 per cent. of children found to need treatment
elect to have this done by the School Health Service, the remainder preferring their
private dentist.
The figures for treatment during the year were:—
Total visits to clinics 30,115
Teeth filled 19,288
Teeth extracted 5,225
General anaesthetics given 2,481
Emergencies 1,186
Ratio of permanent teeth filled/extracted 16.6 to 1
An important branch of treatment is orthodontics for the correction of abnormalities
of position of teeth.
Details of orthodontic treatment during the year were as follows:—
Cases completed 233
Number of removable appliances fitted 465
The Council has arranged with the London Borough of Richmond for the use of
the Teddington Dental Laboratory.
DENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION
The great majority of this work is done by the dental officers at the chairside in
the course of their everyday work. In addition to this, however, special schemes
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