[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Edmonton].

  • Edmonton (London, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
[1934?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Edmonton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    23 very much upon the acceptance rate. We have not that advantage which the close co-operation of Care Committees gives in some areas. Our children are quite often better acceptors of treatment than the parents. It is quite a common occurrence for the child to submit to treatment willingly and leave the surgery apparently quite happy, only to find the parent visibly distressed. Most of the fear in the child is instilled into it by the parent. It is striking that the bulk of our figures each year are made up by those children who have been treated from an early age and who return periodically for treatment. As an example, I have one child, a girl, for whom I filled no fewer than 16 teeth. What would have happened to this child had the parents not consented to treatment can well be imagined. The child of an intelligent parent will generally prove quite a stoic even should the operation be painful. Bearing in mind the extreme importance of the teeth upon the health of the body, it is unfortunate that there are no facilities for treatment under the health insurance scheme after leaving school. Benefits under this scheme arc not available for several years. During that time most of the damage is done. Dental Caries is more rapid in the young, and it seems to me that more effective treatment could be obtained at less expense to the scheme by administrating the benefits during these critical years. So also could the maximum advantage be gained from the treatment given during the school life, whereas now, much of it may be discounted through inability to secure a continuance of this periodical treatment.'' In Table IV, Group V, it will be noted that the routine inspections at the schools totalled 7,772 : invitations to the parents to be present were given, and 1,786 parents accepted this invite, a percentage of 23. INFECTIOUS DISEASE. Detection. Children of school age suspected to be suffering from an infectious com plaint, may be sent by the Head Teacher or the Attendance Officer to the Town Hall any morning at 10 to be seen by the Medical Officer of Health. This service is for the benefit of the Education Authority and not that, of the parent, hence a Clinic Card is required.