SCHOOL DENTAL CLINICS

Southland Times, Issue 23931, 25 September 1939, Page 6

SCHOOL DENTAL CLINICS

NEW ZEALAND SYSTEM PRAISED VISITOR IMPRESSED WITH CARE GIVEN TO TEETH That he was greatly impressed with the care and attention given to children’s teeth in the primary schools of New Zealand was an opinion expressed yesterday to a representative of The Southland Times by Dr Eugene Schmitt, of New York. Dr Schmitt is visiting various centres in the Dominion and is giving lectures to the dental profession under the auspices of the Amalgamated Dental Company of London. The object of his visit is to convey to members of the profession knowledge of the latest methods, materials and so on.

The school dental clinic system was a splendid one, said Dr Schmitt, and was much more thorougl than those adopted in other countries he had visited. The clinics were first started 18 or 20 years ago and since then, great progress had been made. "In the early days of the system decay generally meant extraction and there were very few fillings. Nowadays, the position was reversed and it could be seen that with the big advances made in dentistry the child of today had many advantages over the children attending school 18 years ago. “However, I have noticed that there is a big gap between the time a child leaves primary school and when he is able to obtain a position and thus pay for repairs to his teeth,” stated Dr Schmitt. “As a result much of the fine work carried out by the clinics is nullified. I do not know the answer to this problem.” Dr Schmitt paid a tribute to the school in Wellington where girls were trained foi dental work and said that all the trainees were given a thorough grounding.