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81
Annual Report of the Senior School
Dental Surgeon
Mr. C. E. JAMES, L.D.S., R.C.S. (Eng.)
for the year ending 31st December, 1934.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to submit the annual report for the year ending 31st
December, 1934.
Fillings inserted during the year totalled 4,446, the number in
permanent teeth being 3,903, and in temporary teeth 543. An
additional 691 temporary teeth received conservative treatment
by the application of Silver Nitrate and Formalin. With regard to
the use of Silver Nitrate as a means of preserving carious temporary
teeth, Mr. Bradbury and I are of the opinion that considerable care
is necessary in the selection of teeth for this treatment and in the
preparation of the cavities. Unless the cavities will permit the
removal of soft caries without the pulps becoming exposed, and
unless they are rendered as self cleansing as possible by the removal
of overhanging edges, the results are not satisfactory.
The total number of teeth extracted was 5,116, 4,465 being
temporary and 651 permanent teeth. The number of children
inspected as routines was 6,211; as specials, 658; a total of 6,869.
Of this total, 5,077 were found to require treatment, and 3,552 were
actually treated at the school clinic. Of the routines inspected,
71 per cent. were found to require treatment, and 65 per cent. of
those requiring treatment actually received it at the school clinic.
When a child attends as a " special," generally in order to have a
tooth extracted for the relief of pain, all the teeth are examined
in order to ascertain if conservative treatment is also required.
If the child should be one whose parents have on previous occasions
refused their consent to treatment, it is almost invariably found
that one or more teeth are in need of fillings, and an immediate
extraction is only performed on the understanding that the parent
will bring the child to the clinic the following week for the necessary
conservative treatment. This procedure has been the means of
introducing conservative treatment to many children, and of