View report page

ANNUAL REPORT OF CHIEF DENTAL OFFICER - 1969
1. Staff
No year passes without some staff changes taking place
and the year under review proved to be no exception. The dental
auxiliary, appointed in April, 1968, resigned in April to take up a
post in Health Education. During her stay she had shown the
value of an operating auxiliary to the dental team, both in regard
to the treatment of young children and in the sphere of dental
health education.
During August, a dental surgeon with some five years
experience in children's dentistry was appointed to the vacant
dental surgery in the Health Centre. This recruitment was
balanced, unfortunately, by the dentist at Collier Row Clinic
resigning in order to enrol full-time on a course of study leading
to the newly-established Diploma in Dental Public Health.
At the end of the year five full-time dentists were in post,
with an additional four sessions per week provided on a contractual
basis. This left the staffing ratio of just over 8,000 school
children per dental officer in a similar position to the previous
year.
2. School Dental Inspections
The aim of inspections at school is to obtain a complete
check on the dental health of every child in maintained schools
and to ensure that no child fails to obtain any necessary treatment
from one source to another, Inspections have again concentrated
on primary schools and a further increase in the number inspected
can be reported for the year. The total of 13,256 still falls far
short of complete inspection of the school population.
3. Dental Health Education
The dental auxiliary continued her visits to primary schools
giving talks and demonstrations on dental health education until
her resignation. A return visit of Pierre the Clown was arranged
with the co-operation of the General Dental Council and the
Fruit Producers' Council.
He spent a week in the Borough and visited 24 Primary
Schools in different areas giving dental health talks to some
9,000 school children.
44