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101
Progress is recorded by the fact that the percentage of
children found to require treatment is steadily falling. In 1923
the percentage was 77, in 1924 it had fallen to 73.8, and in 192a
to 71.9 per cent. Considering that the school dental work is
carried on single-handed with a school population of 23,000, the
result is very encouraging.
Again this year, some 600 children who were inspected in 1925
could not be treated by December 31st, 1925, and they had to be
seen in 1926, thereby hindering the routine work of the year.
Once more this demonstrates the fact that at least two more
Dental Surgeons should be appointed. The Board of Education
stipulates that one Dentist should be appointed to deal with 5,000
children, thus in East Ham there should be at least four Dentists to
cope with the number of children. In my former reports I have
stressed this point, and there may be some who wonder if the
insistence is justified. Dentistry to-day is regarded as one of the
most important branches of preventive medicine. Sir George
Newman, the Chief Medical Officer to the Board of Education,
states in his report for the year 1924: "That the prevention of
Dental Disease is well worth while has been demonstrated over and
over again, and it is now a matter of general agreement that
improvement in the health and physique of the nation as a whole,
largely depends on taking effective measures to this end." Every
member of the Dental Profession can give instances of marked
improvement in the health of patients whose mouths have been
put into a sound healthy condition. Hearing and sight has been
improved, relief and often permanent cure has been effected in such
diseases as anaemia, gastritis, dyspepsia and rheumatism. In the
returns of an Approved Society, which was given as evidence
before the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance, there
was shown to be a reduction of 40 per cent, in the number of sickness
claims since the institution of Dental Benefit for its members.
The masses to-day are very careless, speaking generally, of their
teeth; they do not even form the tooth-brush habit, much less the
habit of visiting a dentist periodically, and the result is that they
suffer needlessly. In most districts the Maternity and Child Welfare
Centre has a dentist, to whom the expectant mother is sent,
and the baby can have dental treatment, very often free of charge,
up to school age.