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39
REPORT OF DENTAL TREATMENT GIVEN TO EXPECTANT
AND NURSING MOTHERS FROM SEPTEMBER 1st, 1938, TO
DECEMBER 31st, 1938.
A scheme for the dental treatment of expectant and nursing mothers
came into operation in September, 1938, and by the end of the year
acceptance of treatment by patients attending the Maternity and Child
Welfare Clinics had increased considerably. Treatment is carried out
both at the Lordship Lane and at the Chestnuts Clinics.
The treatment of these mothers includes fillings, scalings and
extractions under both local and general anaesthesia. Since November
a session for gas cases has been held once a month at which a Consultant
Anaesthetist attends.
Dentures will be provided for all mothers in need of them; in some
cases at a reduced rate and free to those patients whose incomes are below
the Council's scale. Impressions and fitting of dentures are undertaken
at the clinics by the Council's Dental Surgeons.
During the four months from September to the end of December
the total number of cases treated was as follows:—
28 nursing mothers and 74 ante-natal cases. Of these,
7 nursing mothers and 8 ante-natal cases were treated with
the exception of the provision of dentures.
6 nursing mothers and 31 expectant mothers, who did not
need dentures, were treated, while 7 expectant mothers were
given the necessary immediate treatment and referred for further
treatment after the confinement.
The total attendance of nursing and expectant mothers was 216.
MODERN METHODS OF DENTAL ANAESTHESIA.
I am indebted to Dr. A. H. Galley, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., D.A., for
the following report on the modern methods of Dental Anaesthesia
employed in cases referred from the Maternity and Child Welfare Clinics
of the Borough of Tottenham:—
When choosing an anaesthetic and the method of its administration
a compromise has to be made between maximum convenience of the