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'At 31st December, 1968, the dental staff consisted of the Chief
Dental Officer, four full-time Dental Officers, four part-time Denial
Officers and two part-time Orthodontists giving a full-time equivalent
of 7.3 Dental Officers compared with 7.9 in 1966 and 7.4 in
1967. The Authority also employs two Dental Auxiliaries (full-time
equivalent 1.6). Four sessions per week were devoted to orthodontic
treatment by Orthodontists and two by one of the Dental Officers.
'The difficulty in obtaining full-time permanent Dental Officers
continued throughout the year and shows no sign of improving. At
three of the Borough's eight Clinics where Dental Officers resigned,
four months elapsed before the vacancies were filled. This necessitates
patients being referred to other Dental Officers and sometimes
to other Clinics and also makes it difficult to carry out school dental
inspections. Nevertheless of the Borough's 24,000 school children,
21,229 were inspected during the year and of these, 2,666 were reinspected.
In addition, 614 pre-school children were examined, twice
as many as in 1965.
'The Orthodontic service is particularly valuable to those who
require this type of treatment as in many cases the alternative would
be to attend a London Dental Hospital involving travelling expense
and loss of school time. New cases commenced during the year
numbered 452 as against 253 in 1967, and 142 cases were completed
as against 123 in 1967.
'The School Dental Service is ideally placed for the task of instructing
children and parents in the value of prevention of dental
disease and this we do by directing as much effort and time as can
be spared to Dental Health Education. The increasing number of
pre-school children brought to us shows that this is having the desired
effect. The Chief Dental Officer, Dental Officers, Auxiliaries and
Health Visitors are all engaged in this work, talks being given to
selected groups in schools and to parentcraft groups in Clinics. Films,
pamphlets and posters are used and the three-year-old Birthday
Greetings Cards introduced last year are proving effective in bringing
more children to the Clinics for check-ups.
'I have referred in previous reports to the damage done to children's
teeth by the eating of sweet substances and snacks between
meals, and in this connection I find that in Merton, one Junior and
one combined Infant and Junior School sell only items which do not
cause decay, such as apples and nuts. This is probably the best dental
service that a Head Teacher can perform for his pupils and it is hoped
that more schools will take similar action.'
The statistics relating to the School Dental Service are given
below:—
Statistics for Year 1968
Number of pupils on the register of maintained primary and
secondary schools including nursery and special schools in January.
1969, as in Forms 7, 7m and 11 schools: 24,868.
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