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the cure of all social ills but where it is successful it can allow time for other problems to be dealt with. So often
pregnancy may be an escape from a problem — boredom in the young teenager who has nothing to look forward
to and plan for; apathy and a feeling of hopelessness in a mother of a large family living in poverty in
overcrowded conditions. Contraception has to be "sold" as something that has a positive contribution to make
to a family's well being and happiness. Those living in more favourable circumstances have always seen the
advantages of contraception. I believe it is our job in the health and social services departments to make this
information available with sympathy and tact to those families that we work with and that the domiciliary
service should be seen as an additional agency that can provide this kind of advice and help.
Dental Care for the Priority Classes
Mr. G.C.H. Kramer, Chief Dental Officer, reports as follows:—
The trend of recent years has been for a reduction in demand for treatment by the expectant and nursing mothers,
and to a lesser extent for the pre-school children, who together comprise the designated Priority Classes. This
trend is common in many parts of the country where dental practitioners are increasingly able and willing to
accept such patients for treatment in the National Health Service.
It is most desirable that the mothers should be under the continuing care of a dental practitioner instead of
attending one of our clinics for only the short period of eligibility and thereafter attending nowhere and, if such
regular attendance is established, there is much to be said in favour of children in the family also attending the
same practitioner.
In the year under review, the number of sessions devoted to the Priority Classes was fewer by 21 than in the
previous year. This reflected the slightly lesser demand and was in no way due to our affording any less
priority to these important classes. The small reduction in the number of sessions brought about a corresponding
small reduction in the treatments provided, but there was no indication of any change in the general pattern.

Total number of dentures 12
Number of treatment sessions 280
Fluoridation of Water Supplies
The Council considered the fluoridation of water supplies after they had received a request for their views from
some of the consumer authorities of the Lea Valley Water Company's water supply. The Council had been given
some information by the Medical Officer of Health and a considerable amount of information by the antifluoridationists.
Fluoridation of water supplies as a means of improving dental health has met with most success
in those countries where the cost of dental treatment falls heaviest on the patient.
The Council decided by 32 votes to 27 against fluoridation although they were advised by the Health Committee
that fluoridation was the most effective and cheapest way of reducing dental decay, and that the present cost of
dental treatment in the Middlesex Executive Council area is £2.92 per head per annum in contrast to the cheapness
of the fluoridation of water supply which in the Birmingham area is 0.91 pence per head.
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