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115
It will be noted that the teeth of the girls are considerably
better than those of the boys. The fact that most of the girls brush
their teeth regularly, while the number of boys who do so are in a
distinct minority, no doubt contributes towards the lower incidence
of dental caries in the girls' teeth. Further, more girls than boys
receive treatment from private dentists, and more accept treatment
offered them at the Dental Clinic. The number of consents for
County School girls was 63.5 per cent, of those referred, for Grammar
School boys 48 per cent., and for Technical School boys 38.1 per
cent.
In endeavouring to persuade boys to take an interest in their
teeth, one feels that the only appeal likely to be effective is to
their desire for physical fitness. If the fitness campaign now being
launched throughout the country should be successful, increased
interest in dental health should eventually result among the older
schoolboys, who at present constitute the most apathetic section
of the school population.
The greater incidence of dental caries found in the Technical
School boys, as compared with the boys attending the Grammar
School, is no doubt partly due to the fact that many boys at the
Technical School come from outside districts where dental schemes
are possibly less complete than in Enfield.
In order, to convey some idea of the results of dental neglect,
a comparison was made during the year under review of the teeth
of Central School boys aged 15 years with the teeth of boys of the
same age attending the Technical School. In this age group it
was found in the case of the Central boys that 37.9 per cent, of
those inspected required no treatment, while the corresponding
figure for the Technical School boys was only 4.7 per cent. The
contrast in the incidence of dental caries was further revealed by
the fact that the Central boys had an average of 1.03 carious
permanent teeth per boy inspected, while the average for each
Technical School boy was 3.9. Professor Schiotz of Oslo, after a
thorough investigation which he recently carried out, found that
the teeth of young children of the well-to-do classes have a marked
superiority over the teeth of children whose parents are in poorer
circumstances. This finding is supported by figures obtained in
the year under review during the inspection of children aged 5-6 years
in two Enfield elementary schools. In a school situated in a poor
district the number of children who were naturally fit (no teeth
carious, filled or extracted) was 3.4 per 100 children inspected.
In the school situated in a better district, where the parents of the
children were financially better circumstanced, the number of