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parents have refused the offer of routine dental treatment on
previous occasions; and Local Education Authorities throughout
the country differ widely in the amount of treatment afforded to
" casuals."
In his Annual Report for 1932, the Chief Medical Officer of the
Board of Education (Sir George Newman) states that :—
"The School Dental Service is an integral part of
"the School Medical Service, and both of them are
"educational in purpose. They are not designed to
"treat disease indiscriminately, but to fit the child to
"receive the education which the State provides, and to
"safeguard and build up his health. The aim of the
"School Dental Service should be to secure that as many
"children as possible should leave school with a complete
"and sound set of permanent teeth, free from disease,
"and that they should be trained in the care of their
"teeth, and taught such principles of dental health as
" will conduce to that end."
Provided that the dental staff is sufficient to cope with the
needs of the area—and to arrange for the inspection and treatment
of all children roughly once a year—there may be something
to be said in favour of "casual" treatment. But when,
as in Leyton, the dental surgeons cannot cope with the needs
of children requiring conservative treatment (i.e., fillings), it
is obvious that all treatment of "casuals" must be at the
expense of—and to the detriment of—children requiring and
prepared to have conservative treatment.
Of 6,211 children actually treated under the Leyton
Education Authority's dental scheme during 1933, some 2,167
were "casuals" who attended for urgent treatment. This
means that roughly one child was treated as a "casual" for
every two children treated by appointment; and that the
School dental clinic is not fulfilling its declared function. In
this connection the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of
Education states:—
"The broad fact is that the purpose of school den"tistry
is not to provide a scheme of extraction for
"a never-ending stream of casuals, so large that the
"dental officers would be employed whole-time alle"viating
the sufferings of youth and profiting them