[Report 1923] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council.

  • Shropshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1923] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Anaesthetics are used for all but the very simplest of extractions, in the great majority of cases, local injections are used, both novocaine and cocaine solutions are used and have their individual advantages and disadvantages. Ethyl Chloride spray is used in the case of fairly loose temporary teeth. General anaesthetics are only used at the Wellington Clinic, where conditions are better adapted for their use, and I take this opportunity of thanking Dr. Symons for his co-operation. Speaking generally for school work, local anaesthesia seems to be preferable in this County, the children have a dread of losing consciousness, and a local also masks afterpain, besides controlling haemorrhage, and I cannot see how the danger of sepsis is really increased. In the filling of permanent incisors, especially in girls, aesthetic conditions are appreciated, and in the great majority of cases, synthetic porcelains used as fillings. Occasional root treatments are also done for older children. It is noticeable that a mild catarrhal gingivitis due to mere lack of cleanliness is often present in the mouths of some of the older children, and after scaling and gum treatment the child is given a short lecture on the necessity for hygiene, and the best means of carrying out the essential personal treatment. All treatment required is carried out completely and at more than one sitting if this is required. The work of the dressers is under constant supervision, in accordance with the views of the Board of Education, and the Dental Board, and their work is in the direction of inspections, fillings and simple extractions. APPENDIX B. Mid-dav Meals in Schools. The basis of good health and a proper resistance to disease is founded on a balanced dietary, and healthy nutrition in children is determined not by the quantity but by the quality and constitution of the food consumed. The weight and height of a child is not an infallible indication that all is well, for the simple reason that there may be an excess of fatty tissues and a relative deficiency of muscle and bone. This condition of affairs is most likely to occur when the diet is unbalanced and contains too great an excess of starchy and sugary foods—^the enemies of the teeth. From observation and common knowledge it is found that the children of the poor subsist largely on bread, jam, cake and potatoes—a diet of starch and sugar, with butter or margarine. Such a diet lacks in sufficient amount, the all important vitamins, salts and proteins, so necessary for healthy tissue growth and repair, which are to be obtained from fruit, vegetables, milk and fleshy foods. For example, in one school it was found that of the 45 children eating their mid-day meal at school, 96 per cent, were consuming bread and butter or jam, and cake. These children had had the same type of meal for breakfast and would probably get the same again for tea. It is therefore desirable to attempt to remedy the faulty diet not only to improve the physical state and, together with that, the mental state of the child, but also in the hope that it may have some educative use for the parents as regards food values.