Report on the institution, maintenance and administration of public dental services and treatment centres / British Dental Association.

Date:
1934?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the institution, maintenance and administration of public dental services and treatment centres / British Dental Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ne of the family dentist is to be conserved. Treatment should be available to those only whose circumstances do not allow of their attending a private practitioner. SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE. (7) It is difficult to compile from school dental reports any summary of the working of the service owing to the diversity of form in which the reports are presented. Sufficient information is available, however, to suggest that there. exist wide variations in methods of administration, of treatment, and even in conception as to the function of the service. (8) It is not desirable to suggest a minimum output of work per centre throughout the service ; itis possible, however, to put forward suggestions which, if adopted generally, would, it is considered, make for efficiency and economy. (See para. 11). (9) Satisfactory results in the operation of school dental schemes are dependent upon a variety of factors, amongst which: (a) adequate staffing; (b) adequate assistance ; (c) satisfactory conditions of service ; and (d) central control and its organisation, are probably the most important. . (a) Adequate Staffing.—It is considered that a school dental officer may reasonably be expected to inspect 2,300 children per annum and of that number to treat 1,600, assuming a. 100 per cent. rate of acceptance: [be figure of 2,300 quotedsiceaus forward by the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education as necessary for a com- plete scheme, and until such time as the acceptance rate improves it is recommended that the staffing requirements should be based on a ratio of 4,000 children per dentist rather than the present average ratio of one officer to 9,000 children. (b) Adequate Assistance.—Educational authorities have not yet fully appreciated the essential economy of providing their dental officers with sufficient assistants such as dental nurses or attendants ; it may safely be laid down as an axiom that every dental officer should have at his sole disposal at least one such nurse or attendant. (c) Conditions of Service—The Public Service should offer the prospect of a satisfactory career with reasonable security of tenure. There should also be (1) adequate remuneration, (2) opportunities for promotion and (3) the prospect of pension or retiring allowance. If a sufficiency of candidates is to be forthcoming for the expanded service of the future, it is essential that the foregoing recommendations should be adopted so as to increase the number of candidates who aim at a career in the Public Service, and to retain their services for a longer period than has been usual in the past. The provision of pensions after a fixed period of service would, it is considered, do much to attain this object. Opportunities for promotion by the appointment of experienced officers as senior dental officers would also serve to make a career in the Service attractive. Such appointments are indeed a necessity where more than one dental officer is employed, and their value in increased efficiency of school dental schemes is recognised by the Board of Education. The institution of a special course of training for a Diploma in Public Dentistry will, it is hoped, stimulate candidates for the Public Service to seek the wider knowledge of their work so offered. (d) Central Control and its Organisation.—The system of placing the school dental service under the complete control of the Director of Education or the School Medical Officer’s department is unsatisfactory. Neither Directors of Education, School Medical Officers, nor Medical Inspectors of the Board of Education, can be expected to be conversant with the technical details of a dental officer’s work; they are f : 22501433197 Ges ——- . j “i. Pp?
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