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7
INTRODUCTION.
There are no special matters to call attention to other than
the extraordinary growth of the district, which is producing
administrative problems which have to be constantly reassessed in
the light of the new centres of the population and new school
requirements.
The Orthodontic work which was reported on for the first time
last year, has gone on steadily throughout the year. The response
fell after the first rush, but it is now constant and steady, the only
difference being that there is a larger proportion of the cases
coming forward at the present time whose means are inadequate
to pay the full cost.
Looked at in the light of experience there must be, I am
c6nvinced, a decentralization, if this work is to spread throughout
the country. That is, that the Orthodontic Specialist must visit
the Clinic in the same way as is done by Orthopaedic Specialists
under the Orthopaedic schemes, and there must be raised a class
of Orthodontic Specialist who will be able to deal with his own
radiograms. This at present is the only stumbling block to the
accomplishment of the scheme as I see it.
The increase in this work has raised the whole tone of the
Dental work. The public are realising that behind this work,
which has hitherto in the popular mind been merely associated
with "filling holes or pulling teeth," is the scientific attempt to
deal with the mouth, taking the long view and not merely dealing
with the present situation. It has put the whole work on a higher
plane in the public's estimation.
One of the most interesting things to note is how the mothers
with bad deformities themselves—some of them are still exhibiting
serious inferiority complexes as a result of their deformity—are
anxious above everything else that their children shall have everything
that can possibly be done for them to ensure that the defect
which has overshadowed the whole of their life shall be
remedied.
My own feeling is that this work must and will become an
integral part of the day to day work of the School Dental Clinic
in the future.
It is only when one sees the mass of these cases and the
woeful condition of some of these mouths from the point of view
of deformity, that one realises how much has been neglected in
the past.