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Total visits to clinics
26,780
Teeth filled
21,711
Teeth extracted
6, 909
General anaesthetics
2,458
Emergencies
1, 144
Sessions devoted to treatment
4, 226
In March the School Dental Service was inspected by a dental officer of the Department
of Education and Science. In the subsequent report which was received recommendations
were made, amongst other things, as to equipment, forms of consent for treatment and
improvement in natural lighting in one clinic. Most of the recommendations were already
in hand before the report was received and the structural undertakings to improve
lighting will be undertaken in 1971.
In discussion during the visit we were urged to inspect more children at school and
try not to devote as much time to re-inspecting children during the year for "check-ups".
Many parents expect their children to be seen regularly during the year and hope that
appointments will be sent at four to six monthly intervals for "check-ups". Except for
children who are very caries-prone, the responsibility for appointments for re-inspection
has had to be left to parental request and not sending for the children at regular
intervals as a matter of course* It is a pity that we cannot have the same service for
recall appointments as many private practitioners do but they only treat a proportion of
children in their practices. Even so 13% of children treated for a first course had
subsequent courses of treatment during the year and the routine inspections during 1970
show an increase of 31% over 1969.
Altogether 1970 was a year of progress for the dental service particularly as a far
greater measure of stability has been attained and it is hoped that this will be
maintained.
DENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION
One aspect of the dental auxiliaries' work in dental health education, which has been
found to be especially useful, is to give individual instruction at school dental
inspections to those children whose dental hygiene is inadequate. These lessons are
followed up after a couple of weeks to see what improvement has resulted. Our one
auxiliary can only cover a limited area of activity, and her effort has to be used where
the need seems greatest. Accordingly, among others, the children attending special
schools have seemed especially in need of this extra care. Children do not seem to lack
toothbrush and paste, this is now rarely the case, but they are too lax and ill-instructed
in using them.
PREVENTION OP INFECTIOUS DISEASE
The School Health Service, in conjunction with the Council's other health services,
is responsible for the control of all infectious disease in schools.
Regulations as to infectious disease
These Regulations are based on current Ministry of Health policy and set out the
types of infectious disease together with exclusion periods. All head teachers have a
copy.
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