SOLDIERS' TEETH.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1915, Page 6

SOLDIERS' TEETH.

TREATMENT OF RECRUITS. A SCHEME ESTABLISHED. Wellington, November 3. A scheme has been finally adopted by the Defence Department for giving dental treatment to recruits rejected in the medical examination because of bad.or insufficient teeth.

The Minister of Defence had a conference yesterday afternoon with Professor Pickerill, head of the Dental •School in Otago University, and Mr. Hunter, of Dunedin, representing the New Zealand Dental Association. The Government have decided to utilise the services of the Dental Association, members of which are willing to assist tlie Defence Department, in the first instance in the examiuation of recruits. After a medical officer has examined a man, he will be handed over to a dentist, who will examine his mouth, and decide whether his teeth are good enough, or whether they can be fixed Up well enough, to provide for efficient mastication. Those men whose teeth require attention will be sent to members of the Dental Association for treatment, and a rota of these practitioners will be arranged so that no one man will get an unfair proportion of these, soldier patients. If a man is in a position to pay for his own teeth, he will have to pay. If it can be shown that lie is not in a position to pay, then the Defence Department will pay for him. In some cases where the work to. be done may take some time, treatment will be begun outside the camp and be completed after the man is in camp. The dentists in camp will be in close touch with those in civilian practice, and the charts of the men on whom a beginning has been made outside will be forwarded to the dentists in the camp. Additional accommodation for dentist'", is being provided at Trcntham and Featherston, and instead of one dentist at each camp as now there will be in each place three fully qualified officers and one dental mechanic with the lank of :-crpeant. The Minister of Defence stated yesterday that when the scheme was in full operation there would be a New. Zealand Army Dental Service. This had already been approved. Under the scheme men who came into town from the country to enlist, and who were found to need dental treatment would be treated. If they wanted work in the meantime, the Public Works Department and the Labor Department would do their best to find work for them.