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52
THE SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT
for the
Year 1934,
on
DENTAL WORK in connection with SCHOOL CHILDREN,
EXPECTANT and NURSING MOTHERS and CHILDREN
under 5 years.
By E. A. JENNINGS, L.D.S., R.C.S.Eng.
I have the privilege to submit the Seventeenth Annual Report.
PART I.
The Staff.
The dental staff consists of four Dental Surgeons, four Dental Nurses and a part time Anaesthetist.
One Dental Officer resigned on October 1st, 1934, and the vacancy was filled on December 3rd, 1934.
A Locum Tenens was employed during the intervening period.
The total number of sessions recorded by the staff is as follows:—
At the Centres 1,570
At the Schools 347
Administration and organisation 20
Absent on account of illness *75
(*18 of these were worked by a Locum Tenens.)
The Anaesthetist attended for 183 sessions.
Duties.
(1) Duties include the inspection and treatment of all nursing and expectant mothers and
children under 5 years of age, referred from the Municipal Post- and Ante-Natal Clinics, from a local
voluntary Centre and from hospitals and institutions outside the Authority's jurisdiction, where
Willesden residents are receiving treatment.
(2) Inspection and treatment of all nursery school children and all scholars attending elementary
schools.
(3) To co-ordinate the work of Maternity and Child Welfare with the School Medical Service,
by means of lectures and talks given by the staff and outside agencies (such as the Dental Board and
the British Red Cross Society.)
Economic Enquiry.
In April, the simple declaration form, hitherto in use for patients seeking dental treatment
free of cost, was discarded. In place of it, the elaborate economic circumstances enquiry form is
used, thus subjecting patients for simple dental treatment, to the same investigation as patients
requiring hospital treatment, spectacles, tonsillectomy, dentures, etc.
It is necessary to point out here, that the adoption of this uniform enquiry with its detailed
questionnaire, is proving a serious hindrance to the work of the School Dentist.
X-ray.
A valuable recent adjunct to the service has been the provision of facilities for X-ray examination
of the mouth and teeth. Arrangements have been made with the Willesden General Hospital
authorities to carry out this work.