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73
local authority dental services; but the evidence so far available
in this area is that they are continuing to rely on the local authority
dental surgeons for inspection and treatment. Even in the Grammar
Schools, where one would expect the highest proportion of pupils
to have their own private dental practitioners, the number was
only 1 per cent, in the case of boys and 3 per cent, among girls.
An additional feature of the new dental 'set-up' is that whereas
a few mothers have taken their children to private dentists to have
teeth extracted, they do not attend there for regular inspection
and fillings.
The loss in a young child of unsaveable teeth by extraction
is unnecessary mutilation which can and should be avoided, and
the only method I know of avoiding it is by the regular dental
inspection and treatment of all children—at least every six months
—from two years of age until they leave school. The attainment
of that ideal requires first of all an adequate dental staff. It also
requires much individual persuasion and tact on the part of the
available staff who conduct the routine inspections.
Under the circumstances, I cannot regard the new dental
arrangements, and the alarming drift of local authority dental
surgeons into private practice, as other than a disaster as far as
expectant and nursing mothers and school children are concerned.
It is clear that the Government was fully alive to the exceptional
needs of mothers and children when the Act was framed, and it is
unfortunate that the great disparity in the subsequent remuneration
of public and private dental surgeons has been instrumental in
frustrating the Government's declared intention. Unless something
is done at once to remove this anomaly, the harm which will be
done to the dental welfare of expectant and nursing mothers and
young children will have widespread and far-reaching effects on
their future health.
Report of Senior Dental Surgeon.
(A. E. Hall, L.D.S.)
All expectant or nursing mothers and pre-school children
referred for dental treatment by the Council's Medical Officers
have been treated during the year.
There has been a falling-off in the number of dentures supplied
to the mothers through the Council's scheme, as some of these
patients have consulted private dentists for their artificial dentures
following the completion of the necessary extractions.