SCHOOL DENTAL WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 10

SCHOOL DENTAL WORK.

ENORMOUS TASK AHEAD.

OVER 200,000 PUPILS.

MR. COATES OPENS NEW CLINIC,

(Cy Telegraph.—"Star" Special Reporter.)

HAMILTON, this day.

When a school dental clinic in Morrinsville was officially opened this afternoon, the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. J. Cr. Coates, said it had been established to deal with some eight or nine schools in and around the township. The rficessary money to provide the clinic was raised by the efforts of the comb-ncd school committees, and subsidised by the Education Department at the rate of £2 for £1.

Mr. Coates quoted figures to show how the Education Department w«\s training nurses for dental work, and also gave au indication of the scope and extent of the work that was being under taken in the Dominion. The Depart rncnt he said, had nine dental otlicers, and 62 dental nurses in the field. There were 31 first-year probationers and 27 second-year probationers in training. Forty single clinics, 16 double clinics, and one training school had been established. During the year .1027, dental officers, dental nurses and probationers in training performed 260,095 various operations. The number of treatments given by all officers of the division since its inception in 1921 was 976,621.

The number of children under treatment, exclusive of those being treated at the training school, was approximately 41,000, and those treated at the training school numbered approximately 14,00U, making a total of approximately 55,000.

"When it is realised that the State primary schools' population of the Dominion is over 200.000 pupils," said Mr. Coates, "the size of the task that is Iteing faced by the Department can be better appreciated, as it is estimated that it will take something like 300 dental nurses to cope with the needs of the children in the State schools. The number of dental nurses taken into the training school this year was increased to 35. It is hoped, as financial and other considerations permit, to increase the number and thus enable the service to expand more rapidly than has lieen possible in the past. The expenditure by the Dental Division for the year 1027-28 was £32.000."

The Prime Minister concluded by saying tlmt it was the intention of the Government to give the country districts all the benefits of the scheme.