[Report 1968] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council.

  • Wiltshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1968
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1968] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/70 (page 16)
    REPORT OF CHIEF DENTAL OFFICER, MR. D. MIDDLETON, L.D.S. The results achieved after eleven years of water fluoridation are now due to be published by the Department of Health and Social Security about the middle of next year. I hope the findings will enable the County Council to give approval to this valuable public health measure to reduce the amount of decay found in children’s teeth. The slight increase in the number of patients examined and treated is due to the better staffing position. It is very depressing to see from the statistics that over half the number of children examined (0—4 years inclusive) were found to require treatment and the very high proportion of teeth which it was found necessary to extract. After twenty-one years of “ free ” dentistry being available to expectant and nursing mothers and pre-school children, and in spite of much time spent on health education, the number of patients still found to require treatment makes for depressing reading, ft is difficult to see how any further improvement can be made without the aid of water fluoridation. No new clinic was opened during the year, but dental treatment facilities for expectant and nursing mothers and pre-school children became available at Wroughton in September, with the opening of converted premises. Once again I should like to thank the health visitors for their invaluable help with dental health education. DENTAL SERVICES FOR EXPECTANT AND NURSING MOTHERS AND CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS ATTENDANCES AND TREATMENT Number of Visits for Treatment during year Children Expectant and 0—4 (incl.) Nursing Mothers First Visit . . . 757 182 Subsequent visits ... . ... . 1,579 399 Total visits ... . 2,336 581 Number of additional courses of treatment other than the first course commenced during year 28 24 Treatment provided during year :— Number of fillings 1,556 405 Teeth filled 1,372 355 Teeth extracted. ... ... . 724 136 General anaesthetics given 241 17 Emergency visits by patients 117 23 Patients X-rayed 8 14 Patients treated by scaling and/or removal of stains from the teeth (Prophylaxis) 150 166 Teeth otherwise conserved 628 — Teeth root filled — 1 Inlays — — Crowns ... — 2 Number of courses of treatment completed during the year 436 120 Prosthetics Patients supplied with full upper or full lower (first time) • • • • • • 6 Patients supplied with other dentures ... ... 12 Number of dentures supplied ... ... 24 Anaesthetics General Anaesthetics administered by Dental Officers ... 4 Inspections Number of patients given first inspections during year 1,250 197 Number of patients above who required treatment 646 178 Number of patients above who were offered treatment 630 178