Fluoridated Toothpastes Under Clinical Trials

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30154, 11 June 1963, Page 8

Fluoridated Toothpastes Under Clinical Trials

Clinical trials of proprietary fluoridated toothpastes are being carried out by the department' of preventive dentistry of the London Hospital Medical College Dental School (the dental school of the University of London) The senior research fellow of the departmen>t. Mr D. S Berman, who is engaged in the trials, is at present visiting the School for Dental Nurses. Christchurch. He is travelling on a World Health Organisation fellowship. The trials were aimed at assessing the effectiveness of these toothpastes in the prevention of dental caries.

and were planned to continue for another four years, Mr Berman said. He was not prepared to disclose the

methods used in the trial* as secrecy was essential in obtaining a reliable result. Before going to the unij versity six months ago. Mr 1 Berman was senior lecturer at. the School for Dental { Auxiliaries (dental nurses* |at New Cross. London. The ! school, established on a five- ’ year experimental basis, is giving training based on the ; New Zealand dental nursq I system, and Mr Berman is the first past or present member of the staff to visit the Dominion.

The place of the new British dental nurses in t+ie children's health scheme was different from that here, in that the British girls were allowed to work only under the supervision of dental surgeons. Mr Berman said. The dental clinics in which they served ■ had mostly been in existence for some time, and were previously manned only by qualified dentists. Mr Berman was full of admiration, he said, for the work of the New Zealand dental nurses he had seen.

Before arriving in New’ Zealand a fortnight ago. Mr Berman spent five days in Malaya, another country where the echool dental nurse training scheme is based on New Zealand's The college at Penang ansa of a high standard, he said. The only one in the country, it has as principal Dr. C. Sundram, who studied in New Zealand before taking up his poat. Mr Berman commended the fluoridation of water supplies. “k is the most effective public health measure we know, from the point of view of dental eare,” he said.