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20
Finer Committee on one-parent families
Information relating to the following services was submitted by the Health
Department for inclusion in the Council's evidence to this Committee; day care
facilities for unsupported mothers, home help service, health of children in
one-parent families, work of the health visitor and statistics of illegitimate
births.
DENTAL SERVICE
During 1970, a total of 514.7 sessions were devoted to the dental care of
expectant and nursing mothers, and children under the age of 5 years. Of this
number 99.3 (43 in 1969) were utilized for dental health education. The dental
ancillary staff have expanded the education aspects of the work at toddlers
clinics. This provides mothers with sufficient information to start their
children along the correct path to good dental health.
Children- By the end of the year the dental birthday card scheme for three year
olds had got under way, but it is too early to assess its effectiveness.
82.6 per cent of children below the age of five years were found to need
treatment, which is even nigher than the figure for school children. One wonders
how much longer this heart-breaking situation must continue before children
receive the benefits of fluoridated water.
It is interesting to note that a special examination of day nursery children
showed that only 18.1 per cent required treatment. This very low figure is
partially a reflection of the good eating habits engendered by the day nursery
staff, and partly due to the fact that these children are examined on a regular
basis, detecting and treating trouble at an early stage. 3.4 per cent of these
children had already had teeth extracted, and 8.8 per cent had received fillings.
In a questionnaire answered prior to the examination, parents indicated that
78.9 per cent of their children had their teeth cleaned at least once a day,
which is very good. Eighteen stated that they knew treatment to be required,
but they had not yet done anything about seeking this treatment.
A sample of five-year-old children was examined to see what sort of dental
care they had received by the time they first went to school.

Thus the average child had a total of at least four teeth which were
decayed, missing, and/or filled at the time of commencing school, which again
shows that one can ill-afford to wait until children go to school before instituting
dental preventive and treatment care.
294 more children attended for treatment than in 1969. Although the number
of general anaesthetic attendances increased by two, this is not significant in
view of the vast increase in total visits since last year, a further 653.
Once again there has been an increase in the number of emergency visits.