N.Z. School Dental Service Copied

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31864, 17 December 1968, Page 14

N.Z. School Dental Service Copied

An increasing number of countries is establishing school dental services modelled on the New Zealand service. School dental nurses are being trained in Ceylon, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Similar schemes were started recently in Tasmania gn<J South Australia, and New South Wales is to have one soon. In Thailand a pilot study is being made to adapt the' scheme to local needs. Experimental studies have been carried out in London fof a number of years. In Ceylon, sinee the inauguration of the services in 1955, 202 nurses have been trained, and 191 of them are at present manning the 98 school dental clinics in the island. In Singapore, sinee the first 20 nurses graduated from the Dental Nurses’ Training School in 1964, the number of school dental clinics has risen to 53 and the number of patients attending has nearly doubled. Over the years the Governtnents of many countries have inquired about the New Zealand School Dental Service, and a pattern has taken shape in the assistance offered by the New Zealand Division of Dental Health. Dentists from the countries interested are sent to New Zealand for a short time to study the service at first hand.

In addition to post-gradu-ate courses which had been extended to tutor sisters from the existing services in Malaysia and Ceylon, training has also been given to representatives from Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei, Hong Kong, Thailand, Ghana. Sierra Leone and Papua-New Guinea. This

is in effect the first step to the establishment of a school, dental service in the countries concerned.