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Report of the Principal School Dental Officer
for the year 1966
The borough dental services continued to be
handicapped by a shortage of suitably qualified
dental officers, a difficulty which was faced by
almost all other local authorities, and which had
probably been exacerbated by the national wage
policy which has caused the discrepancy between
earnings of general dental practitioners, and the
local authority dental officers to further increase.
Towards the end of the year the London
Borough of Hounslow decided to improve the
career structure of its dental service by creating
a post for an additional senior dental officer, and
an entirely new post of deputy chief dental officer.
Authority was also given to release suitably
qualified members of staff to attend a dental
hospital for one session weekly, and it was hoped
that these improvements in career structure
coupled with a generous commencing salary, and
accelerated increments might attract more newly
qualified dental surgeons to the borough's
service.
However, the newly qualified young dental
surgeon leaves his dental school with high ideals.
He is taught that his individual patient matters
above all else, and that regular dental inspections
should be received by his patients every four or
six months. This poses a problem for the administrators
of a dental service which is unable to
fully meet its obligations. Clearly the aim must be
to carry out a school dental inspection of every
child at least annually. With insufficient staff this
aim will most probably be achieved by providing
full treatment for children seen following routine
inspections carried out in strict rotation and
restricting emergency treatment solely to the
relief of pain.
A policy of treatment based upon 'The greatest
good for the greatest number' is quite out of step
with the teaching in our dental schools, consequently
the younger dental surgeon feels that its
pursuance is equivalent to lowering his professional
standards. If it was known with certainty
that such a stringent policy would need to
be pursued for a limited period only, there would
be little difficulty, but the school dental service
has been inadequately staffed for more than half a
century, and realists would find it difficult to predict
any end to this malaise in the future.
At the present time therefore every effort is
made to arrange regular six monthly dental
examinations when this is requested by parents,
otherwise our regular patients would receive a
lower standard of dental care than if they had
elected to receive their dental treatment in the
general dental service. This must inevitably be
reflected by a somewhat smaller number of
routine school dental inspections than might
otherwise be the case.
A high acceptance rate for treatment reflects
the standard of the service but this in turn reduces
the frequency at which schools can be inspected.
This difficult problem is under continuous
revue and it is pleasing to note that rather
more children were inspected at school during
1966 than in the previous year.
The Borough Council endorsed fluoridation of
drinking water at the March Council meeting.
A dental officer from the Department of Education
and Science visited the borough on the 6th
and 7th June and following his inspection a
report was received from his department. This
commented upon the subject of routine school
dental inspections which has been discussed above.
The borough dental service was found to be of a
generally high standard.
During April the borough dental service received
a visit from the president and secretary of
the Federal German Dental Association who
came to study the role of the dental auxiliary in
the provision of dental care for children.
The future of the school dental service must
cause concern to all responsible for its efficiency,
but in the prevailing circumstances the London
Borough of Hounslow took all possible steps to
see that its service was maintained at as high a
standard as possible.
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