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Report of the Principal School Dental Officer
The efficiency of the dental service continued
to be influenced by staffing difficulties
Dental chairside attendants salaries fell far
behind salaries of others in local authorities.
In the London area, where there is relatively
easy alternative employment for women this
has had a serious effect upon recruitment.
During the latter part of 1969 it became
impossible to replace dental surgery
assistants who resigned and there was a
consequent lowering of standards of surgery
efficiency. Some local authorities around
London have met this situation by appointing
dental surgery assistants on salary scales
other than the normally applied Whitley scale.
The London Borough of Hounslow agreed to
some discretion in commencing salary in
1965 and at the time this measure was
generally successful. This is no longer the
case and unless salaries are substantially
raised in the immediate future a serious
situation will develop
A similar difficulty arose in the middle
of the year in respect of dental officers.
During the summer months no single clinic
in the borough was fully staffed
These difficulties resulted in only a small
number of children being seen at routine
dental inspections during the year
Rising cost of dental equipment
During the last few years local authorities
have lost a number of discount concessions
traditionally available to them from dental
supply houses.
Expendable materials previously subject
to 12% discountare now supplied without
this concession. This loss has been counteracted
to some extent by bulk buying when
this can be done on favourable terms. This
leads to some obvious loss of freedom for
individual dental officers, who must use a
particular product because it is bought
centrally and in bulk.
Major equipment has also risen in price
and two examples may illustrate this A
dental chair budgeted at £365 cost £405 on
delivery six months after budgeting Similarly
a dental cabinet budgeted at £43 actually
cost £65.
Future trends
In my last report reference was made to the
need for expansion of the local authority
dental services to meet the demands of an
increasing child population. Evidence
continues to grow that dental resources
devoted to child dental health are becoming
relatively less in relation to the child
population.
Fluoridation of drinking water
The position remains unchanged from previous
years. At present fluoridation of drinking
water will only be undertaken when all the
authorities supplied by the Metropolitan Water
Board are unanimous in their desire for
fluoridation
Research
The dental department co-operated in a number
of research projects during the year Two
papers on the relation of nutritional deficiences
to certain tongue signs were presented at
meetings of the Nutrition Society A research
grant was made by Kodak Ltd to enable the
chief dental officer to continue some aspects
of this work An extensive survey on the
effects of several types of toothpaste undertaken
by the London Hospital Dental Institute
under the direction of Professor G L Slack was
completed and the findings are expected in the
near future.
Health Education
Talks were given to groups of parents by members
of staff, as requested Special attention was
given to the needs of handicapped children and
a dental auxiliary attended the Martindale School
for Physically Handicapped Children each week
to give individual instruction in oral hygiene
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