STATE DENTAL SYSTEM.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5370, 4 January 1929, Page 2

STATE DENTAL SYSTEM.

BRISBANE SERVICE COMPARED.

EFFICIENCY OF DOMINION CLINICS

From tiie point of view of effli ciency, economy, and the standaid of treatment performed, the dental service provided for the sahoojehildren of New Zealand does not suffer by comparison with the travelling clinic, operating in Brisbane, according to a report submitted to the Minister of Health (Hom A. J. Stallworthy) by the director of the New Zealand Division of Dental Hygiejne.

In Brisbane the initial cost of a dental ambulance and equipment is £694 10s 6d, and in New Zealand the initial c'o’s,t of equipment is only £53. Th e New Zealand Government subsidy for the erection, of a “B” type clinic amounts! to approximately £l3O. In Brisbane the annual expences, after deducting the fees* received from adult patients, total £llB4. The annual cost in Ne;w Zealand, where no. fees are received, is £261, which includes dental supplies for the year. Supplies are not included in the cost of the Brisbane ser,vice r The total operations performed in Brisbane numbered 3279 for a year, and) in the same period in New Zealand there were 2335. The; Australian service performs operations at an average co,st of 7.2 shillings, whereas the New Zealand cost is only 2.3 shillings.

In discussing the question of dental ambulances, the report points out that Queensland’s c.limatic conditions ancl roads are; much more favourable than those in New Zealnd. Dental ambulances would not be able to operate in such districts as Central Otago, where, during several months, of the year, the thermometer is extremely low, and where last year the water had to be obtained fr.oju a river, as all the other sources were; frozen. Even drugs in bottles ihad to be thawed. A dental ambulance was tried out in the North Auckland district some years, ago, but in many respec.ts it did not prove satisfactory. The director points' out that one most important-point in favour of a stationary clinic in use in New Zealand is that reasonably good aseptic conditions are assured. The Bris.bahe system, on which this, comparison has been made, is more : on the lines of an itinerant service than regular sys-. tematic, treatment, as providted by the New Zealand Government.