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19.
DENTAL SERVICES.
These services continue to be in ever increasing demand, dental
disease being the commonest single defect found amongst the children.
The number of dental staff employed did not permit of much orthodontic
work being undertaken (correction of deformities of the jaw and teeth)
but the appointment of an additional Dental Officer permitted of more of
this work be ins undertaken and it has now become a flourishing branch of
the dental services with a marked aesthetic and a consequent physiological
improvement in the children treated. The results of this treatment have
to be seen to be believed.
I am indebted to Mr. K. C. B. Webster, the Chief Dental Officer, for
the following report on the Dental Services:-
"The year was notable by reason of the transfer of the dental
staff to the Middlesex County Council under the provisions of the
Education Act, 1944. The scheme of divisional administration,
however, enables the local unit to remain as an integral part of
the Hendon health services without disturbances to the organisation
built up over a number of years.
The staff consisted of four full-time Dental Officers and one
part-time Dental Officer in the latter part of the year, and four
full-time and one part-time Dental Attendants, 7/ith the school
registers giving attendances of approximately 13,500 children, this
provided an allocation of a full-time Dental Officer to every 3,000
children, with 1,500 for the part-time Officer.
The ending of the war and the return of evacuees, many of whom
received little treatment during absence from the Borough, caused
some disturbance to the routine Cental inspections in the schools.
The principal factors, however, which continue to mitigate against
annual inspection and treat, lent for every school child arej-
(a) The hi; h acce^tancc rate, which was approxioately
70$ for the year, V/ith tooth-consciousness at this
level it is doubtful if a Dental Officer can undertake
the complete dental care of more than 2,000 children,
which foreshadows an eventual establishment of seven
full-time Dental Officers, provided the school population
remains at a level of about 14,000 in 1946, The question
of any expansion of the service is now closely bound up
with the problem of accomodation as the five existing
Dental Surgeries were occupied at the end of the year,
(b) The increasing number of parents and older children who
apply for inspection at the Clinics without waiting for
routine inspection at school, a healthy attitude which
is actively encouraged,
(c) The increasing demand for orthodontic treatment,
(d) The increased attendance in the Maternity and Child
Welfare group, partly due to the rise in the birth
rate.
The state of dental health in the schools has been steadily
improving for a number of years and it is now unusual to see badly
neglected mouths.