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175
The main campaign held in the middle two weeks of May was
organised in conjunction with the Oral Hygiene Service, to whom the
borough is greatly indebted. Mention must be especially made of the
work of Miss Doreen Land, their dental health education lecturer, who
not only undertook the major part of the organisation with the chief
dental officer, but also gave her services for the first week,
lecturing in the borough. In January Mr„Colin Davis, director of
the Oral Hygiene Service, lectured on dental health education to the
heads and discussed briefly the forthcoming campaign.
During the spring the dental staff were busy preparing
their lectures and visual aids, because the main part of the campaign
comprised visits by the dental teams to all the primary schools in
the borough to give talks and show dental films to groups of children.
Apart from these talks in the schools, there were various
other aspects of this project, which will be briefly mentioned here.
A poster, specifically designed for Kingston, was printed and
distributed widely to publicise the campaign. A window display at
Bentalls was arranged for the week prior to the campaign. A letter
was sent from the chief dental officer to the parents of all primary
school children in the borough, this being distributed through the
schools. A letter was also sent to all medical and dental practitioners,
and another to all pharmacists, concerning the campaign, and
dental health literature was made available to them. Another letter
was sent to all leaders of youth and womens' organisations in the
borough.
Miss Land gave a lecture to the student nurses at Kingston
Hospital one afternoon, on the importance of dental health education,
after which she and Miss Hobley visited the children's ward to
distribute toothpaste and dental health jigsaws to the patients.
Finally, one of the main activities of the campaign was the
open meeting held at the Assembly Rooms, Surbiton, on 15th May. There
was a panel of speakers under the chairmanship of Mr.Gordon Williams,
immediate past Chairman of the Kingston and District Section of the
British Dental Association. Mr.Williams' special interest in and
concern about dental health education, and his encouragement with all
the plans for the campaign, was of the greatest possible help to the
chief dental officer, and to Miss Land and the dental staff. The
speakers were Mr.Rivers, head of one of the borough's primary schools,
Mrs.iSden, a nutrition expert, Miss Land on dental health education,
and Miss Hobley, the chief dental officer. A dental health film was
shown, after which each member of the panel spoke briefly on his/her
subject, and then invited questions from the audience.