DENTAL TREATMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23012, 13 April 1938, Page 16

DENTAL TREATMENT

SCOPE OF STATE SERVICE PROPOSALS BY ASSOCIATION [ey telegraph—press association] WELLINGTON, Tuesday The importance of measures to prevent dental disease and the urgeiit necessity for intensive research into its causes were stressed by Mr. Herbert £>. Wilkinson, secretary, giving evidence before the Special Parliamentary Committee to-day, on behalf of the New Zealand Dental Association. Among the proposals submitted to the committee were the following:— (1) Expansion of the State dental service to cover treatment of all primary school children and all pre-school children. It was strongly recommended that treatment should be made compulsory. (2) A Government subsidy of 5s a filling when made by a private practitioner. This would be available to families whose incomes did not exceed £230 a year. (3) The Government to take over the existing dental depart ments of various hospitals, so as to treat the indigent and pensioners only. "We disapprove of dental benefits of a national health insurance scheme being administered as in England through the medium of approved societies," said the witness. "Such a system would bo intolerable both to the public and to the profession. The scheme should be administered directly by a Government department, preferably separate from the Health Department."