London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hillingdon 1968
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hillingdon]
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30
Personal Health Services
PRIORITY DENTAL SERVICE
A large number of expectant and nursing mothers receive treatment from their own private
practitioners and as a consequence there was a decline in the number attending the dental clinics.
It is now uncommon at any stage of pregnancy to find patients with many decayed and septic teeth,
and numerous general anaesthetic sessions for extractions of large numbers of teeth is now no longer
necessary. More and more girls on leaving school obtain regular dental attention under the National
Health Service and therefore reach maturity with reasonable dental fitness. However, it still remains
a duty of a Local Health Authority to provide dental treatment for expectant and nursing mothers,
even though the need for this at the local authority's dental clinics has diminished considerably.
There remains a fair number of children of pre-school age whose parents prefer dental care at the clinics.
Dental Health Education is an important function of these services, and in addition the floridation
of water would have particular impact on the coming generations.
| Attendances and Treatment | Children Under 5 | Expectant and Nursing Mothers |
|---|---|---|
| First visit | 461 | 115 |
| Subsequent visits | 572 | 245 |
| Total visits | 1,033 | 360 |
| Number of Additional Courses of Treatment Commenced | 16 | 8 |
| Treatment Provided: | ||
| Number of fillings | 938 | 336 |
| Teeth filled | 764 | 247 |
| Teeth extracted | 267 | 47 |
| General anaesthetics | 121 | 7 |
| General anaesthetics given by dental officers | — | — |
| Emergency visits by patients | 32 | 6 |
| Patients X-rayed | — | 12 |
| Patients treated by scaling, etc. | 19 | 39 |
| Teeth otherwise conserved | 279 | — |
| Teeth root filled | — | 5 |
| Inlays | — | 2 |
| Crowns | — | 4 |
| Number of courses of treatment completed during the year | 340 | 88 |
| Patients supplied with full upper or full lower (first time) | 15 |
| Patients supplied with other dentures | 12 |
| Number of dentures supplied | 30 |