INSURANCE AND TEETH
Sts,—The article by Sir Norman Bennett in your issue of February 19th, 1943, serves a most useful purpose at this time in focussing attention on the above subject. The .Beveridge Plan has made many people think of the future medical services of the country, but, owing to lack of space, the newspapers have not been able to give the details to their readers, and consequently the dental service has been only mentioned among the additional services.
Sir Norman Bennett recommends that the school medical and dental services should be extended so that children could be examined more frequently. That is, of course, a very necessary improvement, but I think, however, it will be necessary to go further. It will be useless to increase the dental staffs only to have them examine the children's teeth. It is treatment which is the important factor, and unless it is made compulsory for the necessary treatment to be given, either at a clinic or privately, within a given time an extended service will not justify itself. In Dundee, dental examination of school children (aged five-fourteen) is carried out every ten months or so, and yet so per cent, of the children who require treatment pass through school without visiting the clinic or a private dentist, unless toothache compels. (Parents don't think it is necessary unless pain is present.) I am now strongly convinced that only. compulsion will cure this evil thintr. I hope this will be dealt with by the responsible authorities and that the problem will gradually disappear. Compulsion would not harm those who, at present, do attend to their dental condition, and it would very greatly improve the hundreds of thousands who neglect it and who later become a burden on the nation.—Yours faithfully,
1. Nelson Street, Dundee. DAVID A. FINLAYSON, Dental Officer.
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