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62
Puerperal Pyrexia.
Ten cases of puerperal pyrexia were notified during the year.
Maternity Mortality.
There were no maternal deaths of Leyton residents during
the year.
Dental Treatment.
Report of Senior Dental Surgeon
(A. E. Hall, L.D.S.)
Whereas all expectant or nursing mothers and pre-school
children referred by the Council's medical officers and by the
Essex County Training Home were seen, advised and treated,
owing to shortage of dental staff it was impossible to afford to
expectant and nursing mothers and young children the comprehensive
dental inspection and treatment they require.
Many pre-school children are seen at 3 or 4 years of age with
decayed and abscessed teeth needing extraction. Following the
relief of their pain they are probably not seen again until 5 or 6 years
of age when in school, and when they are again found to have
unsaveable temporary teeth, which leads to the clinical picture so
often seen by school dental officers of children of 6 or 7 years of
age with all their temporary molars gone and loss of space for the
succeeding permanent teeth.
With the present state of knowledge concerning the predisposing
and exciting causes of dental decay these pre-school
children should be inspected every three or four months from
about the age of eighteen months or two years if it is hoped to
save their temporary dentitions until the correct time for them
to be shed.
It is pleasing to be able to record that there was an increase
in the number of new cases of all groups, i.e., expectant and nursing
mothers, and also infants during the year, with a corresponding
increase in the total amount of work done, details of which will be
seen in the accompanying table.