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DENTAL SERVICES
The position in the priority dental services is slowly improving. In
1951 in Area 10 we had five dentists, and now we have equal to eight with the
early prospect of more. Three years ago we engaged an oral hygienist to
assist the dentist with minor dental procedures like scaling and polishing in
certain clinics. Her services have proved invaluable and the experiment
fully justified. These auxiliary dental workers can relieve dental surgeons of
a great deal of the less exacting work and so save valuable time; thus the
operations of scaling and polishing are done with staff at a salary less than half
that of the dentists, which is common-sense economy. There are many more
minor procedures done by qualified dentists which could quite well be done by
less qualified auxiliary helpers; but as the law stands at present it is illegal for
anyone other than a dentist to do any kind of surgical work in the mouth.
This prohibition has prevented the expansion of auxiliary dental workers, such
as has taken place in the medical profession. Medical auxiliary workers
perform numerous functions; there are nurses, physiotherapists, speech therapists,
chiropodists, social workers, psychologists, audiometricians, laboratory
workers, and a host of others, but the dentist may not delegate anything to an
ancillary worker, not even the most trivial procedure.
Dental Nurses.
In New Zealand, the government have allowed dental ancillary workers
known as dental nurses to carry out extractions or fillings in children. The
scheme appears to have worked well. The nurses are under the supervision
of fully qualified dentists. I believe the British Parliament will soon be
considering a Dentists Bill which will provide for controlled experiments to be
carried out here by the dental profession on the use of auxiliary staff for carrying
out minor procedures. We have anticipated this measure in all our new clinics
by providing an additional surgery in which an ancillary worker can work
under the supervision of the dentist, and we hope by this means to save valuable
time and to provide a much more comprehensive service for the children and
the expectant and nursing mothers.
PEST DESTRUCTION
The service provided by the Health Department enables residents in the
Borough to obtain advice as to the identification and method of eradication
of a wide variety of insect pests, as well as the normal work of the department
connected with rodent destruction.
During the year an unusually severe infestation of a type of ant known as
Pharaoh's ant was observed in flats where solid-fuel central-heating systems
existed. Modern methods of eradication have been employed using 2 per cent
chlordane.
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