CHILDREN’S TEETH.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1923, Page 6

CHILDREN’S TEETH.

CARE IN THE SCHOOLS. CLINIC AT NEW PLYMOUTH. CO OPERATION OF DENTISTS. The dental clinic which has been established at the Central infant school at Courtenay Street Whs officially opened yesterday afternoon in the presence of a fair number of visitors, including the’ Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson) and the Mayoress, Mr. M. Fraser (Tanaraki Hospital Board). Mr. P J. White (Taranaki Education Board), Mr B. H. H. Cfianey (Taranaki Dentists’ Association), and representatives of the local school committees. The chair was taken by ME T. M. Avery (Central School committee), and the opening ceremony was performed by Colonel T. Hunter, C.8.E., director of the division of dental hygiene. Apologies for absence were received from Messrs. A. Lees (chairman of the Education Board), S. G. Smith and R. Masters, M. sP., and L. A. Nolan (chairman of the High School Board). The clinic has been established in a special room set aside for the purpose in the front of the school building, and facing in a northerly direction, receives an abundance of sunlight through the large windows all day long. The clinic is ished with modern dental equipment, and is staffed by two nurses, Misses Jean Mackenzie and J. R. Robbins, who been specially trained for the work. After Mr. Avery had introduced Colonel Hunter, Mr. White, said th kt, as a member of the Education Board, he could say that the board had done a little in forwarding the movement upon which Colonel Hunter was engaged. It was a movement that should appeal to all parents.

VIEWS OF THE DENTISTS. i The support and co-operation of the Taranaki Dentists’ Association in the work among the children was assured by Mr. Chaney, who also extended a welcome to the nurses. “They will be of great assistance to the whole profession, and I can assure parents,” he added, ‘‘that they can ler their children come to them with every confidence.” Mr. Chaney referred in appreciative terms to the Wellington clinic ip which the nurses had received their training, and the methods which had bee>n employed, and concluded by congratulating Colonel Hunter on the manner in which he had carried out his work, stating that, although at the first he had encountered a good deal of opposition from the profession, the dentists had now seen what was being done and had accorded their support. The dentists in Taranaki would assist in every way they could. ‘T represent the citizens, big and little,” said Mr. Wilson, “and I have come here on behalf of the big ones to say how much they welcome the clinic, because it will mean fewer sleepless nights, fewer dentists’ bills and a general improvement in the health of the children.” Mr. Wilson recalled an incident in his school days, when the schoolmaster at his school had acted as a dentist and had extracted an aching molar from the jaw of one of the boys under the admiring gaze of the rest. They had advanced very much since that day, and efforts were now directed at saving the teeth rather than letting them be extracted at the whilom fancy of a schoolmaster. As citizens they welcomed the establishment of the clinjc and recognised the efforts of the school up by the Education Board, to have it set up when, owing to straitened finances, the Government had hesitated. Mr. Wilson also extended a welcome to the nurses. EFFICIENCY OF THE NURSES. In the course of his remarks, Colonel Hunter referred to the training which had been given to the nurses who were undertaking the work in the schools. The nurses, he said, had undergone a two years’ course of the special work they would have to do with the children. It was not a course; of two “academic” years, but of two full years, and the amount of time they had spent on actual’ work had been longer than was put in at any dental school in the world.

Colonel Hunter referred to two letters which had beten received by the nurses that day. One was from a parent, who had stated that her boy was under the care of a doctor and for that reason she did not want his teeth touched. They welcomed that sort of letter, not only for the information which it gave about the child, but because it showed interest by the parents. He could assure them, however, that the nurses Were Very watchfull in such cases and knew when to treat children and when to leave them alone for a period. THE DENTIST PREFERRED. Thftt otner letter stated that the child was under the dentist’s care and visited him every few months. This had been the practice ever since the child was a baby, and the letter went on to state that the parents fully appreciated the necessity of giving proper attention to the child’s teeth. “I wish that letter hhd stopped there,” Colonel Hunter said, “but it goes on:—‘We don’t want to be classed as the usual interfering parents) but I feel that a dentist with years of experience is better able to give attention than girls with a few months’ training.’ “We want parents to take an interest in |he clinic and come to it,” Colonel Hunter went on, “but I want to say that these girls are better trained than any who comes out of a dental school.’’ He’ was not going to say that they were better than dentists of years of experience, but many of the dentists, he added, did not want the kind of work the nurses would perform. Colonel Hunter then made an appeal for the support of the parents in ensuring that < the children kept appointments with the nurses, whose time, otherwise, would be wasted. The nurses did not take the holidays that were given to the scholars, and he asked that no matter how much the child desired to play, if he had an appointment he should be made to keep it. In conclusion, Colonel Hunter said that they could not diffuse the services of the nurses no matter how much insistance was made by outside quarters. They must concentrate on one school and get it clean. While they might be able to go to other school, they could not go far afield, thus

allowing the work they had done in the beginning to go back. CHILDREN IN HOSPITAL. “Colonel Hunter has thrown much light on a subject which has been very close to my heart for a gogd many years,” was Mr. Fraser’s opening remark. The fact that they had haff so many patients from the schools in the Aospital had been a mystery to the Hospital Board. Half their child patients during the past ttfro months had been of school age. As laymen, they had thought that overcrowding in the schools might be responsible. In one month of the current year they had had 28 operations for adenoids on school children. Since he had heard Colonel Hunter’s remarks he had’ l felt compelled to withdraw some of the- suggestions he had made as to the probable cause of so many children being in the hospital. Mr. Oscar Johnson (headmaster of the Fitzroy school) referred to the difficulty of getting the less intelligent parents to the schools when their children were being examined, and urged that the service should be increased so that the nurses would be able to visit all the homes. Colonel Hunter agreed, stating that the ideal would be the creation of a service that would assist parents in the care of the children from the time of birth until tjiey were full-grown. At present, there was a gap between the time’ when the Piunket nurses left off until they received medical and dental attention at the school.'