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91
TEETH.
The condition of the mouth and teeth in 184 of the children was
found to be foul and dirty, and the percentage with carious teeth varied
according to the age of those examined.
About 15 per cent, of those between 7 and 8 years and 6 per cent, of
those between 13 and 14 had five or more carious teeth.
A considerable amount of ill health is caused by bad teeth, but it is
difficult to get the parents to realise this and seldom is any dental
treatment procured further than the extraction of foul stumps. The
poor have so many calls on their slender purses that one can hardly
expect it.
By advice and encouraging the children, a much larger proportion
now use tooth brushes than heretofore as evidenced by the cleanly condition
of the teeth of the great majority.
TONSILS.
Two hundred and sixty-nine children suffered from considerably
enlarged tonsils, and twenty required urgent removal.
The younger children were most affected, and the percentage (five)
of all children whose condition would be improved by operation was
similar to that found in the previous year.
ADENOIDS.
Thirty-four children were noted as likely sufferers and the thirteen
others returned as mouth-breathers may be so considered.
These figures cannot represent the total, as a very considerable number
of those with enlarged tonsils have probably also growths in the
nasopharynx.
Without a digital examination, which is not undertaken, a correct
diagnosis cannot be made, although the expression and characteristic
appearance of these children are well known.
Growths, whether to the back of the nose or in the tonsils, tend
to mouth-breathing and partial deafness, and seriously interfere with the
general physical and mental development of the child, and, next to
defects of vision, they are the most serious among those found affecting
our school children. The greater attention now paid at all our schools
to drill and breathing exercises in the open air may account for the
small number of those defects noted in older children, and it is well
known that these growths tend to diminish with age. Indiscriminate
operations for such conditions would be unwise.
EAR DISEASE.
Forty-one children were found to be suffering from discharging ears.