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53
A special survey of 75 mentally handicapped children showed that
36 per cent had good oral hygiene, whilst 13.6 per cent were poor. It
is quite interesting to compare these two groups as it shows the value
of good, clean mouths, which is what the service is trying to achieve
with the preventive measures outlined above.
Clean mouths Poor hygiene
Average No. decayed, missing, and
filled teeth 3.18 10.3
Percentage with no decayed, missing
or filled teeth 49.3 0
Average No. of inflammed anterior gum
Papillae 1.6 10.7
Percentage needing treatment 47.8 100
The differences are quite staggering.
DENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION
Because of the assistance given by dental health educators from
County Hall and by Pierre the Clown, it has been possible to decrease
the number of dental health talks given by the Department's own staff.
Nevertheless the dental auxiliaries have again been active in this field
and have devoted over 40 sessions to this subject, which corresponds
to a very much larger number of actual talks. The Principal School
Dental Officer gave a short talk on an aspect of dental health on the
B. B. C. radio programme ‘New Worlds'. Miss J. Lilley one of the dental
auxiliaries came first in the I.L.E.A. Dental Health Poster Competition
and Miss D. Aitken, another of the auxiliaries got the second prize.
They are both to be congratulated.
POST GRADUATE STUDIES
Staff have continued to attend post graduate courses, lectures
and conferences, both at the Authority's expense and also in their own
time. The Principal School Dental Officer attended the International
Conference on Child Dental Health in Copenhagen, where he delivered a
lecture on ‘Community Dental Care for the Handicapped' .