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Oral Hygiene.
During the year 1953 the Oral Hygienist (Miss Watts) has been
devoting 7/11ths of her official time to work in Leyton area and the
remainder in Walthamstow.
All cases referred to her have been seen by one of the Authority's
dental officers, and checks of the finished work are carried out by
qualified dental surgeons. All her operative work has been well
done, and she has the confidence of the patients.
During the year all head teachers of schools in the area were
asked by the Borough Education Officer if they wished Miss Watts
to visit the school and give short talks to the children on dental
hygiene, to be illustrated by a colour film, " Let's Keep our Teeth,"
hired from the Educational Foundation Film Library.
Visits were made to five schools in the area who accepted these
arrangements ; and subsequent reports by the head teachers spoke
very favourably of Miss Watts's efforts and asked for repeat visits
at a later date. An evening talk has also been given to the Parents'
Association of one school.
A day was devoted to the Essex Agricultural Show in June.
In addition to operative work (scaling, cleaning and simple gum
treatment) for the mothers attending the Maternity and Child
Welfare Clinics, the hygienist has devoted much time to the giving
of talks on matters of dental hygiene.
One difficulty in the school dental service appears to be that of
finding sufficient scaling among school children to keep a hygienist
fully occupied in operative work ; but this difficulty will be overcome
to some extent when there are more dental officers at work in
the area—the present number is only just over 50 per cent, of the
approved establishment.