[Report 1959] / School Medical Officer of Health, Anglesey County Council.

  • Anglesey (Wales). County Council. no2003102100.
Date:
1959
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1959] / School Medical Officer of Health, Anglesey County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/30 (page 18)
    DENTAL SERVICE Mr. H. Levison reports : “The health services are maintaining good, general health in children and serious illnesses of childhood are no longer the scourge they used to be. The commonest disease nowadays is dental caries. It could be kept under control if all children desiring treatment were restored to complete dental fitness after each annual inspection. Unfortunately this ideal cannot be achieved at present and a greater proportion of our resources should accordingly be devoted to the school dental service. With fluoridation of water supplies, more dental officers and effective dental health education, the disease could be controlled. But until these requirements are met we shall be unable to match the current progress in every other field of child health. Establishment After allowing for time spent on dental inspection for the Ministry of Health, the number of full-time dental officers is equi- valent to 2\. With a school population of 8,700 this gives an ap- proximate ratio of one dental officer to 3,500 children. The Ministry of Education recommend that the minimum number of dental officers should be one to every 3,000 children. On this basis there should be at least three full-time dental officers in Anglesey. Most local authorities cannot even obtain this minimum establishment, but some, such as Anglesey, have geographical and other advantages which attract more staff. In these more fortunate areas, practitioners may have their offers of service declined because an establishment of one dental officer per 3,000 children has been regarded as a rigid maximum instead of the recommended minimum. It is necessary to emphasise that this ratio of one dental officer per 3,000 children is not an end in itself and any additional offers of service should be treated accordingly. Prevention of Dental Disease Much dental disease can be prevented by dietary discipline and correct oral hygiene. Little has been done about this, however, as the poor state of oral hygiene is a recurrent feature of previous annual reports. In many cases, any toothbrushing that is done is ineffective because it is not performed immediately after meals, whilst the un- restricted consumption of sweets, biscuits, etc., between meals is having disastrous dental effects.