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(d) Dental Treatment. — The position in regard to Dental
staffing remained as in recent years, the equivalent of 4 7/llths
whole-time Dental Surgeons being available for School Dental work
at 31st December. The facilities of the dental workshop which
was established by the Borough Council prior to the appointed
day of the National Health Service Act, 1946, were available to
the School Dental Service, especially in regard to orthodontic work.
Mr. L. W. Elmer, Senior Dental Surgeon, submits the following
report :—
"I regret that there has been no permanent improvement in
the staffing situation. A visiting Dental Surgeon from South
Africa gave welcome additional assistance during part of the year,
but apart from this the staff remains as before, i.e., the equivalent
of 4 7/11 dental surgeons.
" The situation remains, therefore, much the same as in 1950,
when the major portion of the treatment was that given on direct
request from the parents. Some 60% of these children required
extractions and about 40% were given conservative and orthodontic
treatment. Were it possible to augment the dental staff it should
be possible to at least reverse these proportions as the number of
patients to whom preventive dentistry is acceptable increases yearly.
But there still appears to be no escape from what is mainly a
' casualty ' service.
" I should like to report, in a more hopeful vein, the following.
In 1936 I examined the five and six-year-old children in one school
and found that only 5% of them were free from dental defects.
"In December of this year I examined the same age-group,
and found, to my surprise, that the percentage of children without
defects was as high as 40%. This may or may not be significant.