School Dental Service

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26628, 14 January 1952, Page 6

School Dental Service

Competent overseas observers who have recently investigated the New Zealand School Dental Service, including the chief dental officers of British Health Departments and JMr John Fulton, adviser on dental services to the Children’s Health Bureau of the United States Federal Security Agency, have been highly impressed by its efficiency arid economy. A rather different opinion has been expressed in articles in the “British Dental Journal”, a summary of which has been printed in the cable news of “The Press”. It should be noted, first, that these articles were written to support thfe view that better results could bfe obtained in Britain by vigorously pursuing the usual methods of traitiing dentists. The argument is, apparently, that fully-trained dentists would do better work than nurses trained under the New Zealand system, that the lowfer cost of training nurses is offset by the higher wastage rate through such causes as marriage, and that the establishment of a service on th# New Zealand pattern would delay the training of adequate numbers of qualified dentists. The economic side of the case does not concern New Zealand, because here the facilities for training and the Organisation of the service are already in being. It would be uneconomic for New Zealand to scrap all this and start again. But the economic conclusions of the “British Dental “ Journal ” articles do seem arguable. There is much to be said for leaving the ordinary care of temporary teeth in the hands of nurses as skilled and practised in dealing with small children as in filling teeth. Such a branch of dents) practice would scarcely interest qualified dentists as a lifetime career. Many •deo&to believe that children

who come to them from the scfiodl sfervice make better patients thah those who have not had this training, and this would add tb the efficiency of the dentists’ work.

The “ British Denial Journal ” articles, written for quite Other teasons, indy give New Zealanders a wrong impression of their school dental service’s efficiency. Commenting editorially on Mr Fultoh’s report, which was published by the World Health Organisation, “ The “ Times ” observed that he had made skilful use of statistical teste, Which were taken for granted by Uhited States social service experts but were alihost wholly neglected in Britain. The results of these tests Were most favourable to the New Zealand school service. “ Public “health dentists consider the huiri“ber of missihg teeth io be the “most objective ihdfex of the eftec“tiveness of a caries-control pro- “ gramme ”, Mr Fulton said. He then showed that in the United States the average number of permarient teeth lost by a child at the age of 14 coffiffiohly exceeded one. In New Zealand (although at this stage the average child had 10 permanent teeth affected by decay), missing teeth, including those due for extraction, averaged ho more than two to every five children. When it'is considered that the average New Zealand child at the age of seven has five or six of eight temporary teeth affected by decay, the magnitude of this achievement can be realised, Ahbthei comparison illustrates the care given to temporary teeth in New Zealand. The Lohdon County Council school dental service in 1940 extracted aboiit 10 temporary teeth fob every three it preserved. In the same year New Zealand dental nurses extracted only one temporary tooth for every nine teeth they preserved. The statistics of the New Zealand School Dental Service over the last 30 years record a Striking improvement in the condition of children’s teeth. In 1921-22 the number of extractions was 114.5 per cent, of the number of fillings, Last year it was _