SCHOOL DENTAL CLINICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 June 1927, Page 3

SCHOOL DENTAL CLINICS.

SYSTEM DEFENDED. WEIiLINGTOX, June 27. The speech of the lion A. Young at Hamilton last week, in which he declared that 30,00(1 children were being treated by dental clinics has led to some criticism of the system. It has been declared that the clinics are doing work which should tall upon the dental profession, ami that moreover they are doing it at the public expense, for many people who can well a Hol'd to pay for the services theliiseUes ami should d ) so. also that the voik done should he l>\ qualified dentists.

The Health Department states that this criticism is based on a misunderstanding ot the position. I lie work (>f dental clinics was begun at the request of the dental profession itself, ami the profession recognises that it is of to iiiinpossi'ble lor dentists to deal with children’s teeth in the manner they require. The work of children s dent'islry is very taxing, and many members of the prtoession are unfitted for it, and unwilling to undertake it at all, consequently the clinic system has the ivli.olo weight of professional opinion behind it.

That the work is not done by fully qualified dentists is inevitable, because fully qualified operators are unwilling to devote the amount of time to clinic work, which would be their portion did they go through the whole clinic course. Nevertheless this is nothing against the efficiency of tho system, because trainees in clinics perform a. very much greater number of children’s operations than fall to the lot of the ordinary dental student, and even perform something like four or five times the total number of filling made by him.

Experts who have inspected the work of the clinics are satisfied that this system is working .magnificently, and the senior surgeon of Middlesex Hospital has declared that New Zealand has solved the problem of children’s dentistry. Also there are movements afoot in both New South Wales and Victoria to bring some scheme in Imitation of the Dominion system. The fact that the work is done free 7s one of the root principles of the system, because bv this means many children arc attracted who might otherwise never receive dental 'treatment, and the foundations of national health are thus being much more securely laid. Discrimination is considered unwise and unnecessary, because of Hie fine results achieved. The Government is accepting simply responsibility for the whole community, and is prepared to shoulder that responsibility as far as its resources will permit.