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85
School Dental Service
Mr.V. Sainty, L.D.S..Area Dental Officer, reports that all
surgeries were fully staffed during the year.
Early in the year a visit to the Area was made by Miss E.M.
Knowles, 0.B.E.,P.D.S., H.D.D.,a Senior Dental Officer of the
Ministry of Health who visited all the clinics and talked with the
Dental Officers mainly on matters concerned with the priority
dental service.
The orthodontic clinic (7 sessions a week) has nowbeen
operating for a year, but there still remains a long waiting list
of children requiring treatment, and consequently it has become
necessary to stop the reference of any more cases at present apart
from those in a special category due to age and/or severity of
malocclusion,
It is hoped that it will be possible to extend the number of
sessions to make a full-time appointment, but as the services of
0
the orthodontist are shared with another Area, and as the number
of these specialists is insufficient for the large amount of this
kind of work, it is doubtful whether this can be done in the near
future. The dental officers continue to treat a number themselves
Parents are increasingly conscious of the value of this
branch of dentistry and are generally anxious that their children
should have the treatment and often are worried by the prospects
of a long wait before a start can be made.
As regards the school dental service in general, the records
of routine inspections show that over 25 000 children out of a
school population of 30,000 were dentally inspected during the
year so that the ideal of an annual dental inspection is coming
within sight of attainment
The following tables show the work carried out during the
year:-