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78
B. EDUCATION ACT 194 4.
SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
Dental Service.
In this area there is accommodation at present for seven dental
surgeons. During 1951 the staff consisted of five, including the
Area Dental Officer. Although this is insufficient for the needs
of the larger school and priority population, it is an unexpected
improvement on the position in 1950.
Despite difficulties of staffing the service locally has not
deteriorated to the extent of becoming largely occupied with emergency
treatment as in many parts of the country Regular inspections
in most of the schools in the Area are carried out though it
is no longer possible to make an annual visit to each school as
was the local custom before the introduction of the National Health
Service
The bulk of the time of the dental officer is spent on conservation
treatment and quite a large number of orthodontic cases are
treated in the clinics; the appliances for this work are made to
our specifications by the technicians in the County Council's laboratory
at Hendon .
Conditions now obtaining have regrettably made it necessary
to reduce the work previously carried out for the expectant and
nursing mothers. It has been found necessary to concentrate on
the pre-school and school child since it is easier for adults to
obtain dental treatment under the National Health Service than it
is for children
During the year the County Council decided, in an effort to
offset the shortage of dental officers' to inaugurate a scheme of
evening work on a voluntary basis; in the first instance this is
to be given a three months trial with a maximum of three sessions
per dental officer to be worked per week, commencing on 1st January
1952.
Tottenham Day Special School for the Deaf.
This school, situated in Philip Lane, Tottenham, was established
many years ago and now accommodates over 80 deaf and partially deaf