CHILDREN’S TEETH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1792, 21 February 1918, Page 2

CHILDREN’S TEETH.

SOME jLijt/je since,-the Palmerston' District Hospital bad under discussion the setting .up pi tv .denial

clinic at the hospital, where children of parents who could not afford to pay the dental fee in the ordinary way would receive free treatment. The local representative on the Board objected that the clinic would only serve a local purpose, and something more general was required to meet the needs of children of indigent parents throughout the whole district. He suggested that children should receive free treatment at local surgeries, and that the Board and Government should bear the expense. He referred to the medical inspection of school children, and said the treatment should follow compulsorily, if necessary, from these reports. The subject was referred to the Minister for Health, the Hon. G. W. Russell, by a deputation from the Board on Monday. The Minister was not only- sympathetic, but dealt directly with the matter. There was no evasiveness on his part, no referring the matter to his departmental officers for report, but a straight-out, definite reply. Mr Russell said a dental clinic at Palmerston North was useful in the town itself, but it woifld hot meet the needs of the people in the outlying districts. He had formed the opinion that the teeth of the children ought to be treated for an average charge of 4s per child. In saying that, he was referring to extractions, stoppings, and work of that kind —not to dentures. In his opinion, married people with an income of only £4 a week or less required assistance in these matters in bringing up families. Of course, the business of dentists would not be affected by any innovation of that kind, because in practically all cases the work they did would not otherwise be done at all. He thought the board should approach the dentists and arrange a uniform scale of fees throughout the district. He had a special vote on the Estimates dealing with dental conditions, and out of that he was prepared to allot the sum of £2OO to the Palmerston North hospital district, to bo given as a subsidy of £1 for every 10s spent by the board. That would enable the board, he pointed out, to treat at least 1,000 children. At next meeting of the Board this important mater will be fully gone into.