Dental health better

Press, 25 February 1977, Page 21

Dental health better

It costs more than SI3M a vear to run the school dental service but taxpayers are getting good value for the: money spent. Fillings or extractions were < once almost inevitable every time a child visited a school ( dental clinic. This is no longer true and the number of fillings per child has , decreased from about nine ' per child in 1950 to three in 1976. There has been a 10 per cent decrease in the need for teeth to be filled between i 1960 and 1970 and in the last six years this need has i further decreased as has the*

'rate at which children lose i their permanent teeth. There are now 1319 nurses lit the school dental service I and their role is changing I from preventive work on I children’s teeth to more work lon health education aimed at iconsolidating what the prinjcipal of fie Christchurch School for Dental Nurses (Dr R. B. Nevh) calls a “very satisfying iwareness of dental care among school children.” The most important single factor leading to a decline in the neec for dental treatment for school children has been tte increase in fluoridated vater supplies. Most dental problems were

;e easily avoided. Dr Nevin said, and the school dental service :s was implementing total pree vention which should be the g aim of any health agency. n “In a large number of k schools the dental nurses are lt doing themselves out of a job ’’ in the traditional sense of n filling or extracting teeth.” v One area still needing attention, however, is dental j] care of teen-agers once they leave secondary school. e “We have no way of known ing yet how successful our t- education of these young s people is, but we hope they i- take a responsible attitude to their own dental care,” Dr e Nevin said.