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49
Dental Service.
Mr. V. Sainty, L.D.S., Senior Dental Officer, reports:—
"The Dental Service has been greatly improved by the opening
in May of a new Dental Unit in the Annexe at the Town Hall, thus
giving greater convenience to people living in the central part of the
Borough. With four dental centres in daily operation and consequent
reduction in the number of schools under the care of each
dental officer, a more frequent routine inspection of the children's
teeth is possible. In view of the raising of the school leaving age
to fifteen, the reduction in the number of schools per dental officer
will offset the effects of this larger school population, and it should
be possible with existing staff to inspect all children at least once
a year, unless there is an immediate extension of priority classes
other than school children. Dental treatment extended to adolescents,
coupled with extended provision for priority classes, will
necessitate an increase in the number of dental officers and centres
required in the future.
There has been a noticeable improvement in the condition of
pre-school and infants' teeth during the last few years, the numbers
requiring multiple extraction of deciduous teeth being far less than
some years ago. Whether this is due to a better balanced diet with
increased milk consumption, or to the more controlled consumption
of sweets due to rationing is a matter of opinion; probably it is due
to both, plus a definite increase in the number of parents who realise
the importance of regular dental treatment, thus ensuring the preservation
of the temporary dentition for its full time, and subsequent
avoidance of malocclusion caused by the early loss of the
first teeth.
Some years ago, owing to dental neglect and refusal to have
conservative treatment, it was necessary to remove a large number
of first permanent molars, very often all four from one mouth;
now, what is known as extraction of ' 'four sixes'' is very rare indeed.
A comparison between 1921 and 1946 is interesting:—In 1921,
as the only dental officer in the Borough, I extracted 10,504 teeth;
in 1946 the number of teeth removed by three dental officers was
5,000; the number of gas administrations was also down by more
than half; whilst the number of fillings inserted in 1946 was more than
three times the number in 1921 per dental officer. These figures
show what a great improvement has been brought about in the