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As would be expected from the lesser number of sessions, there was a small (but only a small) decrease
in the number of fillings and of individual teeth filled, and / am delighted to report that there was a reduction
in the number of teeth extracted.
The fact that we are able to offer a predominantly conservative service is highlighted by the ratios of teeth
extracted to teeth restored. For deciduous teeth this is 1 to 2.4, against a national average of 1 to 0.9, and
for permanent teeth 1 to 15.3 as compared with the national 1 to 6.4. Indeed, if the sound teeth necessarily
removed as an essential part of orthodontic treatment for certain patients were disregarded, the ratio would
be 1 to 26.8. / derive additional encouragement from the fact that the total of extractions reduced by 101
below the 1969 figure required 152 more general anaesthetics, thus showing that, on average, each individual
child needing to suffer this procedure required fewer extractions than in the previous year. / shall never cease
to be appalled when tiny children require the extraction of up to a dozen teeth, yet this is by no means
exceptional, and filling of others not yet beyond hope of restoration.
Staffing
The staffing position in the dental services throughout the country is recorded as on 31 December each year,
for the annual returns required by the Department of Education and Science. In fact, to a degree which
varies in different Authorities, part of the total is attributable to treatment of the priority classes and not
to the school service. In the year under review, 93% of our service is for the schools although the figures
which follow relate to the two services together.
On the date mentioned above, in addition to the Chief Dental Officer/Principal School Dental Officer,
we had two orthodontists giving service equivalent to 1.7 full-time and eleven dental officers equivalent
to 7.4 full-time. These officers work with two specialists and 10 other dental surgery assistants.
Comparing one year with another during the six years that our Borough has been in existence, the bare
figure on the last day of each calendar year suggests that the staffing position remains fairly stable. In fact,
the figure tends to conceal many changes and shortages at other times throughout the year, when dental
officers particularly may leave for one reason or another and cannot be replaced before some time has elapsed.
There is, however, no reduction in the unrelenting demand for treatment.
It is deserving of comment that the increase of 4,908 in the school population referred to in the earlier
part of this report, would alone require more than the equivalent of another full-time dental officer to
meet the extra demand which it has created.
Premises
The dental clinic in the new Stuart Crescent Health Centre in Wood Green could not be brought into use
until March, three months after other services there were operating, because of delays in the supply and
installation of some items of essential equipment. However, after an interval of over two years, the Wood Green
schools were at last returned to a clinic more conveniently placed for them than the various temporary
arrangements which had obtained during the building of the new premises. It is a cause for regret that only
one of the two surgeries is fully equipped.
If it was financially possible and we could be certain to recruit another dental officer, there is pressing
need to have an additional surgery, proper recovery room and separate dental waiting room at Weston
Park. The present premises are in no way satisfactory or adequate in this centrally situated and very busy
clinic, where there continues to be an enormous demand for our services much in excess of our ability
to meet the need.
As financial considerations would make it unrealistic at present to consider any large-scale replacement
of major items of equipment, we have succeeded only in maintaining what we have in good order and with
minor additions or replacements from time to time. We do meet the reasonable needs of the dental officers,
but it must be recognised that obsolete or obsolescent equipment cannot be maintained indefinitely and will
require replacement in the not far distant future, and that recruitment of scarce categories of staff is very
much influenced by the premises and equipment where they would be working.
Blood Testing of Certain Ethnic Groups
Last year / reported that we had been able in March 1969 to introduce a system for the greater safety of
children needing a general anaesthetic for dental treatment, by blood tests to ensure that proper account
could be taken if genetic abnormalities were present. An additional benefit deriving from these tests was
that information helpful to the medical services could result, even if the information was not relevant to
provision of dental treatment.
In the first incomplete year during which the new system was operating, / reported that from a total of
448 tests we had found 98 cases in which the procedure had proved valuable in one way or another.
During the full year 1970, a further 514 tests were done from which useful information was obtained in
106 cases, and it now seems appropriate to comment in a little more detail on the results over the whole
21-month period since testing was started.
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