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102
DENTAL SERVICES.
An increased amount of work has been carried out by your
dental officers during the year. It has been possible to examine
over thirteen thousand of the elementary school children and to
treat approximately 5,000.
The dental staff, which at the beginning of the year consisted
of one part-time and one full-time dentist could not adequately
cope with the work, particularly because of the number of children
coming under the scheme and because of the fact that the percentage
of those accepting treatment was steadily growing. The
Council decided, therefore, to appoint an additional full time
dentist and he commenced his duties in September, 1835.
It soon became evident, however, that with this additional
staff, the work could not be adequately overtaken as there had been
an increase in the amount of dentistry carried out under the
maternity and child welfare scheme, and in addition, it was decided
to undertake the dental examination and treatment of all secondary
school children in the Borough.
As about 50 per cent, of the school children are centred on
the Watling Estate and the surrounding area, it was necessary to
eq,uip a second dental surgery as a temporary measure at the
Watling Health Centre, this equipment will ultimately be permanently
established at the Mill Hill Health Centre when that is
completed.
A gratifying feature is the increased percentage of acceptances
cf treatment, this is due to various factors and is likely to go on
increasing. The first of these factors is the excellent work which
is carried out by your dental staff and which is greatly appreciated
by the parents.
In addition at each inspection a parent is invited to be present
so that the dental officer may have an opportunity of explaining
the necessity for treatment and what precisely requires to be done.
During the year a system of following up refusals of treatment
by letter was inaugurated and this also had the effect of many cases
being treated who would have otherwise let the treatment go by
default.