DENTAL SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 56, 4 September 1934, Page 10

DENTAL SERVICE

A MOBILE CLINIC

This week there will be established in the Wanganui district a mobile dental clinic which will bo operated as a unit of the New Zealand School Dental Service.

This clinic will be the first of its kind in the Dominion, although not, as has been suggested, the first in the world. In the early days of the School Dental Service a motor clinic operated among certain country schools near Auckland. For various reasons it was not successful, and in designing this new type of trailer clinic the Department has profited by tho experience gained in the earlier experiment. The Wanganui Mobile Dental Clinic Committee, of which Mr. G. Whillians, of Fordell, is chairman and Mr. F. Pritchard, of Kaitoke, is secretary, is responsible for establishing this new system of providing dental service. The whole cost of constructing the clinic is being met by this committee, which will also bear its maintenance.

This new clinic has been carefully designed to meet the special conditions under which it will bo used. Steel panels of pleasing shape, built up on a beech-wood frame, form the exterior. The interior is comparatively commodious, the floor space being 14ft by 7ft Gin. A plain smooth -finish has been adopted throughout, and all interior angles are rounded to facilitate cleanliness. Lighting is one of the major considerations in designing a dental clinic, and in this case excellent natural lighting is secured from a set of five windows arranged in the manner of a bay window at one end of the vehicle. The windows at tho other end are frosted in order to avoid conflicting lights. The clinic is fully equipped in every detail, and tho object has been to make the best possible use of the space available. In order* to further ensure cleanliness stainless steel has been used to a considerable extent. Heating and lighting will bo by electricity drawn from the service supply. Provision is also made for running water within the clinic, and, in schools where only a low pressure supply is available an electric pump, fitted* beneath tho clinic, will bring the water to the taps within tho clinic. The vehicle is painted white both inside and out.

The clinic will be towed from school to school as required by means of a motor-lorry. It will be taken tomorrow to Wanganui, where it will be officially opened on Saturday by the Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young.