The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1920. SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160814, 23 November 1920, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1920. SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE.

The members of the New Zealand Dental Association are divided about the wisdom of supporting the n6w sfcheme which has been inaugurated by the Education Department for the training of 200 dental nurses for a period of eighteen months to assist in the dental treatment of school children. The scheme is the outcome of the startling revelation that between 80 and 90 per cent, of the 200,000 children attending the public schools are in urgent, need of dental treatment, and that in order to effectually cope with the work involved it is necessary to create a State Dental Service. Mr T. A. Hunter, who has recently been appointed Director of Dental Hygiene, states that the number of qualified dental surgeons available for the work—even if they can be attracted into the service of /the State —is absurdly inadequate and that it would be detrimental to the health and welfare of the children to wait until a sufficient number of the students in training have qualified. The Hon. the Minister for Education states that, try as the Department may, it,, cannot get a sufficient number of" fully qualified men for many years to come, and Mr Hunter considers that ,suitable women, with eighteen months or two years intensive course, directed by the special needs of the school children can fill the gap. The De-r partment proposes to train these dental nurses in specific parts of dental work, to enable them to carry out, under the supervision of registered dentists, the treatment of minor dental trouble in the younger school children. It Is not proposed to sanction any part of the training as equivalent to any part of the course required for the qualifications to become registered dentists, and they will be trained only for De> partmental purposes. In addition to the dental nurses, the Department is employing registered dentists for higher dental work, and the services of ' the dental bursars now undergoing training and such additional numbers as may > from time to time be deemed necessary for the purpose.