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95
Dental Inspection and Treatment.
It is generally agreed that a nation's greatest wealth lies in
the health of its inhabitants. Recognising this, progressive nations
have taken steps to safeguard the health of present and future
generations by regarding the health of mothers and young children
as the foundation on which their social structures should be built.
With that end in view we have, during and since the war, granted
certain priorities in foods and vitamins to expectant and nursing
mothers and to young children.
When the National Health Service Act, 1946, was framed it
was the declared policy of the Government that dental inspection
and treatment should be concentrated on the priority needs of
expectant and nursing mothers and children ; and in Circular
118/47 of July, 1947, dealing with the health services to be provided
by local health authorities, the Ministry of Health stressed that :—
" The intention of Section 22 is clearly to put them
(expectant and nursing mothers and young children) in a
preferential position and to afford them some guarantee of
treatment not given to other classes. Local Health Authorities
cannot give effect to this intention without expanding substantially
the provision now made by Welfare Authorities
as part of their Maternity and Child Welfare Services, and
putting more emphasis on conservative treatment."
The Inter-Departmental Committee on Dentistry (" Teviot " Committee)
set up by the two Health Ministers were concerned not
only to ensure that the dental care was made available to mothers
and children, but also that they should accept it.
" The claims of these classes need hardly be argued. In
the case of the expectant and nursing mother, the harm that
oral disease can cause both to mother and child is well known.
As regards the young it is not only that their health and
development benefit in a special degree from dental care ;
a point ultimately of even greater significance is that if they
come to a true valuation of dental health, our major problem is
solved not only for them in their adult lives, but also for future
generations."
In consequence of the serious state of these special dental
services throughout the country in general, and in Leyton in