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SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE
The Principal School Dental Officer reports for the year 1967 as follows:-
The general pattern of the dental service as detailed in the reports of the two previous years has
been maintained.
Any direct comparison of the numbers of items of treatment set out at the end of this report with
those of the previous years must be made taking full account of the fact that the number of treatment
sessions was 670 fewer than in 1966 and 883 less than in 1965. Further explanation of this will be
found later, but it is worthy of note that the 'productivity' of sessions again showed an advance.
Inspection and Treatment
The number of pupils on the school rolls on 31st December was 34391, just 22 more than in 1966.
Routine dental inspections in schools occupied 211 sessions, as a result of which 18089 were
inspected for the first time in the year, and a further 3759 were first inspected in the clinics. Together
these total 21848, which is 63.5% of the total possible and is virtually the same as in the previous year.
An additional 2880 were re-examined either at school or in clinics after having been inspected
or treated earlier in the year.
Of the total of 24728 first or re-examined, treatment was required by 15367 or 62.5%. This was
exactly the same percentage as in the year 1965 and was higher than in 1966, when it seems likely
thatthepercentage was lowered by the inspection in their due turn of a high proportion of schools with
a better standard of dental health.
The deplorably high incidence of dental decay is unlikely ever to be reduced to manageable proportions
without the introduction of fluoridation, for which the Council have expressed their approval but
which can not be implemented while contrary views are held in a minority of other places.
Sessions devoted to treatment numbered 3132, during which total attendances were 26491 with a
further 5131 appointments not kept. This latter figure was almost the same as in the previous year
when a large reduction had been achieved from the introduction of a new system with that end in view,
and appears to confirm the value of the change as a continuing benefit and not merely by chance in its
first year of operation.
It will be seen from the table at the end of this report that the large numbers of teeth fiIled—
both permanent and temporary — and the even larger numbers of separate fillings done, heavily outweigh
the numbers extracted, and that these latter are predominantly temporary teeth. Of the permanent teeth
removed as unsavable, a pleasingly small total for so many patients treated in the year, a high proportion
were for children recently resident in the Borough and mostly from other countries.
Staffing (as at 31st December, 1967)
(The details which follow apply to the whole of the Council's dental staff, although this report is
of the school dental service to which we devote approximately 88% of our time. The balance is used
for the priority classes reported upon elsewhere).
We have again been fortunate in maintaining a relatively stable staffing position although, when
recruitment to the public dental service has become more difficult than for some years past, there have
been delays in filling posts which became vacant.
Part of the reduction of sessions worked, as referred to in the opening paragraphs of this report
resulted from this fact, and there have been occasions when one or more surgeries have been lying idle
for some weeks before suitable appointments could be made. A further loss of sessions resulted from
the lengthy illness of a dental officer who, it was hoped, would eventually return to duty.
The greatest single loss of sessions as compared with the previous year resulted from our parttime
orthodontist leaving England in the middle of January and our inability to find a replacement for
the whole remainder of the year.
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