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Despite our pre-occupation with meeting the very heavy demand for routine types of treatment, we
were still able to provide some advanced conservation and preserve teeth which could not have been
saved in any other way, by the provision of 7 gold inlays, 21 permanent crowns and root-filling of 22
anterior teeth.
2,178 diagnostic X-rays were taken for 676 separate patients, the majority of these being in
connection with orthodontic treatment.
The Orthodontic service, itself, was being hard-pressed in the earlier part of the year with a backlog
of patients on the waiting lists, together with those newly being referred. A policy of reserving
reference of new patients to those who would be likely to require such treatment within the near future,
rather than as hitherto all such patients even when treatment clearly would not be appropriate for some
considerable length of time, has allowed the artificially inflated waiting lists to be vastly reduced and,
althouoh still heavily engaged, we feel ourselves in command of the situation.
Patients wearing corrective appliances carried forward from the previous year numbered 175 and
were added to by 142 new appliance cases during the year under review, and of these 71 were finally
completed and a further 39 discontinued because of the impossibility of our obtaining the necessary
patient co-operation.
Many patients referred to the Orthodontists were found to require treatment which could be provided
solely by carefully planned extractions at the appropriate times, and these cases do not contribute to the
figures which appear above. For those patients requiring active treatment, 350 removable and 8 fixed
appliances were supplied.
Staffing (as at the 31st December, 1965)
(Approximately 92% of our service is devoted to school children and the remainder to the priority
classes reported upon elsewhere).
In addition to the Chief Dental Officer, we had a whole-time equivalent of 6.4 dental officers,
together with whole-time equivalent of 1.4 orthodontists and a dental auxiliary giving 0.8 whole-time
equivalent. The professional officers are aided by ten whole-time surgery assistants. This complement
of dental off icers, with afurther full-time off icer due tostart three days later, although below establishment,
seems sufficient for the time being in meeting the demand for treatment in our present clinics,which are
proving not to be situated wholly as we would wish for the dental services in relation to the schools
concerned. During 1965 we had eight dental clinics in operation having a total of 13 surgeries, plus
one dental surgery maintained in Suntrap Residential Special School on Hayling Island, Hants, for the
treatment there of the physically delicate children residing at that school.
The opening in November of the new Fortis Green Clinic brought together under one roof the Health
Services, previously divided in the Muswell Hill area, and replaced the former unsatisfactory Coldfall
Avenue Dental Clinic by a new two-surgery unit, which is fully up to modern standards.
During the year the demand for treatment alone at the Weston Park Clinic has been such as to
overwhelm the dental officer and dental auxiliary working in the two surgeries there, but it is anticipated
that the opening of the additional dental clinic in Burgoyne Road, N.4. will relieve the pressure at Weston
Park sufficiently to per mit routine dental inspections in schools being held at shorter intervals than within
the past few years.
Premises ind Equipment
In the main our premises and equipment are satisfactory. It is necessary to be realistic with the
very heavy cost of modernisation and a desire to replace obsolete items has to be a restrained and phased
programme embarked upon so as to spread the cost over a reasonable length of time. All surgeries where
routine treatment is provided are fitted with high speed air turbines; most of the obsolescent anaesthetic
apparatus is being replaced by recent and more reliable models and it is hoped that within the not too
distant future X-ray facilities will be available at each clinic.
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