SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24445, 20 December 1944, Page 4

SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE

EXTENSION TO 18 YEARS MINISTER ANNOUNCES SCHEME (P.A.) WELLINGTON, December 19. An early extension of the Government’s dental services to provide for the adolescent section of the community, was announced to-day by the Minister of Health (the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer). It was intended to inaugurate this newsservice next, year, said the Minister, and it would constitute in effect the second phase of a national dental service. The first phase dealt with pre-school and primary school children. • , . The new service for the adolescent group would be, in effect, an extension of the existing school dental service into a higher age category, and eventually it would embrace all adolescents, whether at post-primary, schools or engaged in business or industry. Thus, in due Course, everyone would have the opportunity of receiving continuous dental supervision from the age of two and a half up to 18. * “I must point out, however, Said Mr Nordmeyer, “that the extended dental service must necessarily commence on a limited scale, and that the rate of development will depend upon the availability of personnel to undertake the work. The whole matter has been the subject of very full discussion between the Government and the New Zealand Dental Association, and I am happy to say that our proposals have been received by the Dental Association in a most sympathetic apd helpful spirit. "Pending the building up of a staff of salaried dental surgeons to undertake this work, it is the intention of the Government tp invite private dental practitioners to assist on a fee-for-.service, basis in inaugurating the new service. Details of this part of the plan have not yet been completed, but the principle has been endorsed by the New Zealand Dental Association, and I am hopeful that there will be a good response from private practitioners. "The' preventive nature, of the work will, I feel confident, have a special appeal for the dental profession. Trie services of a limited number of school dental nurses will be used initially to augment the services of dentists. The Minister said that in accordance with established policy, supervision and treatment would bft organised on a preventive basis, and the aim would be to concentrate on those members of the community who had received continuous supervision throughout their primary school career, rather than undertake extensive treatment of a reparative or curative nature for those who had had little or no previous dental attention. In fact, said Mr Nprdmeyer, limitations of staff, especially In the early stages, would render the latter quite impracticable.