London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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East Ham 1948

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for East Ham]

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91
DENTAL INSPECTION AND TREATMENT.
Miss H. T. Smith, L.D.S., R.C.S., has submitted the following
report on the Dental Service:—
The School Medical Officer,
Education Committee,
County Borough of East Ham.
Sir,
I have the honour to present my report of the work carried
out in the dental clinics during the year 1948. The year which
has just ended has been rather a difficult one for the dental staff.
It has seen the introduction of the Health Service, and I had
hoped that this would be the most successful year in the history of
the dental clinics in the Borough. Arrangements had been made
to extend the dental services for expectant, and nursing mothers,
and young children ; unfortunately, we have been unable to carry
out this plan owing to the acute shortage of dental staff. At the
beginning of the year, there were three dental officers providing
treatment for the school children, and patients under the M. & C.W.
scheme ; later in the year one dental officer resigned, and all plans
for extending existing services had to be abandoned. However,
in spite of these problems the figures for the year show an
improvement upon 1947. This is particularly noticeable in the
number of permanent teeth filled, the figure for the year being
3,197, an increase of 426 on the previous year. The number of
temporary teeth filled was also increased by 38 on the previous
year. The number of children inspected during the year was 21,835,
the number found to require treatment being 8,708—the number
of patients actually treated was 5,030.
The interest of parents in orthodontic treatment has been
maintained, and during the year 27 orthodontic appliances were
supplied. The more difficult cases and those requiring prolonged
treatment were referred to hospital. During the year 80 permanent
teeth were extracted to facilitate orthodontic treatment.
Details of figures will be found in Table IV returns to the Ministry
of Education.
The School Dental service is passing through a very difficult
time, but the Local Authorities could alleviate this problem of
acute staff shortage, and the drift of dental officers to private
practice, by making conditions of service more attractive to the