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50
SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE
The year 1967 may be thought of as one of consolidation and organisation,
the emphasis having changed from re-equipment of surgeries to expansion of
preventive and treatment services. An inspection of the dental services was made
by the Department of Education and Science but the report had not been received
by the end of the year. Joint circulars laying down the basis for a good dental
service were received from the Department of Education and Science and the
Ministry of Health.
Several visitors were seen during the year. Dr. S. Adu-Aryee from Ghana
was on a World Health Organisation Fellowship to study Children's Dentistry in
the United Kingdom. He came to Hackney to see how our local service operates
for the benefit of the children. Mr. P. Eastep, a dental student from the
University of Kentucky, was sent to this country by his Professor of Social
Dentistry. He was especially interested in the facilities in Hackney for the
dental care of the handicapped.
On the clinical side the Principal School Dental Officer has personally
endeavoured to extend the dental facilities to special categories of children,
especially the physically and mentally handicapped, the very nervous, and those
with very high rates of decay or with injured teeth. For those and similar
purposes a special consultative clinic was arranged to which children are
referred by school dentists and by local dental practitioners.
Staff and premises are shared between the school and other priority dental
services, so that everything mentioned about these aspects is related to both
services. The statistics relate only to school children. Those for pre-school
children, expectant and nursing mothers, and the mentally handicapped will be
found elsewhere in the report.
STAFF
At the 31st December 1967 there was a staff, including the Principal
School Dental Officer, of 6 full time, 1 part time and 12 sessional dental
officers, making a full time equivalent of 11.3 within an establishment of 13.
This compares with 10. 1 in 1966, a welcome increase.
The average age of full time dental officers was 53 years, part timers
56 years, and sessionals 41 years. The overall average was 50 years. This
again emphasises that younger sessional workers leave the service for the higher
renumerated posts in general dental practice. Nevertheless, the full time
average was reduced by four years and the sessional increased by two years.
There are 15 dental surgery assistants, 3 of whom are permanently assigned
to Executive Council surgeries. Four of the 15 possess the recognised National
Certificate of Dental Surgery Assistants, one is a state registered nurse, and
one has received military training as a nursing attendant. One of the 2 girls
who took the National Certificate examination during the year was successful.
POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
The Principal School Dental Officer attended the Annual Conference of
the British Dental Association, The International Symposium on Child Dental
Health, a meeting on Child Dental Health in Europe and a course on administration.
Other dental officers attended lectures and courses in orthodontics,
treatment of handicapped children, public dental health and dental radiography.
Courses in the latter subject were also attended by some dental surgery
assistants.