SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20101, 18 May 1927, Page 7

SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE.

DEPARTMENT’S GOOD WORK. PRAISE FROM PROFESSION. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, May 17. A warm tribute to the work being carried out by the Department of Dental Hygiene in New Zealand was paid to-day bv sir G. Lawrence Taylor (Auckland) in his presidential address at the annual conference of the New Zealand Dental Association. “For many years, said Mr. .Taylor, “the members of the New Zealand Don.ai Association had seem the necessity for some form of school dental service, and m February, 1921, the scheme was successfully launched. It has gradually extended and increased its usefulness, ilie 10Ilowing figures which I have obtained from the department show that in 1926 a total number of 127,254 operations were performed on children attending our primary schools. The figures are as follows: Fillings 50,375, extractions 33,387 and minor operations 43,492. At the present time there are 68 clinics established, and 33,000 school children are receiving regular dental attention,but it is not only in treatment that good work is being done. The pamphlets distributed to each chnd on diet and oral prophylaxis in the prevention of dental diseases are particularly commendable. These reach the homes, and I have come across innumerable cases where parents are endeavouring to bring up their children on the lines laid down by the _ department. This school dental service is providing treatment for thousands of children whose mouths would have otherwise been sadly neglected, as the parents in most cases did not understand the value of dental treat* ment, and could often ill afford hi. “I also notice in genera) practice that, whereas 10 years ago, I regularly had children brought into my ''office with their mouths in a deplorable state from disease and neglect, now such is seldom the case. The parents of children attending schools where the dental service is not available seem to have benefited by the propaganda of the department. Some may consider that a debatable point about the scheme is the extent of skilled work that should be executed by the dental , nurses with their limited training. However. Mr T. A. Hunter and his staff deserve credit for the good work that has been done by the department during the past six years, and the Government should bo urged to extend the scheme so that clinics can bo available for all primary schools.