SCHOOL DENTAL CLINIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 727, 29 July 1929, Page 11

SCHOOL DENTAL CLINIC

PLEA MADE FOR PARENTAL CO-OPERATION PROVISION AT ONEHUNGA “The problem of dental disease Is tremendous and has not yet been fullyrealised by the public,” was the statement made by r Colonel T. A. Hunter, Director of Dental Hygiene, on Saturday, afternoon at the official opening of the Onehunga Dental Clinic. “Do not allow your children to spend money on sweets. It is better spent on fruit,” he said. Concentrated sugar is the cause of dental disease in New Zealand, where the people consume the enormous quantity of 19Slb. of sugar annually per capita, as against two pounds a head In Italy. He issued a warning that without the active co-operation of parents, the dental work already done would be wasted and would lead to a serious curtailment of tbe State’s activities in fighting dental diseases. He mentioned two schools having a combined attendance of 11S pupils, where the teeth of 114 of them had been found defective and required no fewer than 49S fillings and 382 extractions. These appalling figures, he said, were general throughout the Dominion, but in spite of criticism, the problem was being solved by the existing methods better than anything yet suggested. The success of the scheme itself was answering all criticisms. It had been shown that by the adoption of a proper diet and the cultivation of dietetic habits, dental disease could be prevented. The Maoris had no sugar, yet they possessed fine specimens of teeth even in their old age.

Since the inauguration of the existing scheme, 90 clinics and 55 subbases had been established and 44,500 children attending 670 schools had been brought under systematic treatment. There were 97 nurses and eight dental officers in the field, while 74 nurses were in training. Colonel Hunter expressed his appreciation of the assistance rendered by school committee and teachers, but asked for the more active co-opera-tion of parents in seeing that their children were given a rational diet and no more than three meals a day.

The Mayor of Onehunga, Mr. Edward Morton, eulogised the work being done by the department, and contended that its critics looked at the question from a business point of view, being chiefly self-interested parties, but that the relief given to children and incidentally to parents, would produce an enormous benefit to the community generally. In declaring the new clinic officially open, Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P. for Manukau, considered that it was an emblem of the advance of civilisation. The State had undertaken a national responsibility by employing a highly efficient sFaft to attend to the dental needs of the people, and he paid a warm tribute to the Hon. J. A. Young for the part he had taken as Minister of Health in building up this beneficial organisation. There existed, however, a gap between the time the child left the hands of the Plunket nurse and the time when its teeth needed attention. That gap would have to be bridged. He urged the extension of the scheme to include Ellerslie, Mount Roskill and Panmure. Mr. W. H. Hayward, chairman of the Onehunga School Committee, who presided, characterised the new building as another link welded into the chain of the school’s progress, and announced that it would serve the dental needs of the Onehunga, Te Papapa, Mangere Central and Maugere Bridge schools, to'which the Royal Oak school would shortly be added. Mr. H. R. Strong, ex-chairman of the Onehunga School Committee, and the originator of the clinic, expressed satisfaction with the consummation of his efforts. The clinic, he said, had been informally established some 15 months ago in a temporary room, and since then 630 scholars had received attention. There had been during that time 2,531 attendances and 5,574 operations had been performed. Tbe new building, which is of wood, is built after the bungalow style with plenty of light and ventilation. It contains three rooms, the surgery, 18£t. by 13ft.. and two smaller apartments, one for the nurse and another for a waiting room. The surgery is fully equipped with all the most modern dental appliances, and is in charge of Nurse M. Douglas, who received her training in the Wellington School of Dental Hygiene. The building cost £342, of which sum the committee raised £ll4. which was subsidised by a grant of £228 by the Education Department. The members of the committee, who are now responsible for the maintenance of the rooms, are: —Messrs. W. H. Hayward, chairman, J. Bollard, F. W. Beckett, H. de Wolfe, T. S, Dunn, J. Hitt, R. C. Lord, and H. R. Strong, and Mrs. R. M. Mountjoy.