School dental service

Last updated

The School Dental Service was a county council network of dental screening for children at school in UK in the mid-20th century. In some areas it is now known as a community dental service.

Contents

History

A School Dentists Society had been set up in November 1898 for private school dentists, by Sidney Spokes of University College London. [1]

Sedley Taylor of Cambridge in February 1907, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, gave £500 for the care of the teeth of children attending Cambridge Council schools, [2] [3] at the first school dental clinic, the Cambridge Dental Clinic, operating at 12a Park Side from August 1907. In the first year, around 2,500 children were inspected, and around 1,000 children were treated. [4] The scheme was taken over by the Corporation of Cambridge from 1 April 1909. The dental officer was paid £300. The children would be largely of the ages from 5 to 9. [5]

Some other local authorities followed Cambridge. The Education Act 1918 had nominal provision for dental treatment for children at school.

It was the Education Act 1944 that made it compulsory for children at primary and secondary schools to have dental inspections in England and Wales. The provision of a school dental service mostly appeared after the Second World War, and until the end of the 1980s.

School dental services were operating in the early 1980s, but from the 1980s the services were subsumed by NHS community dental services; often this was a reduced service. In 1982, there were on average 6,000 schoolchildren, per district dental officer, in England and Wales. [6]

By the late 1980s, due to advances in toothpaste, and lowering of typical rates of dental treatment amongst children, the provision of having a schools dental service was seen as much less of a priority, than in the 1950s, when advances in toothpaste had not occurred. Some schools had vastly better dental health than others.

In the 1980s three dental schools were closed, as the government predicted that there would be too many dentists; by the late 1990s there began to be a wide shortage of qualified dentists across the UK. Affluent areas, such as Cheshire, had good and improving dental health, but deprived areas, such as Manchester, did not. [7]

Operation

Each county would have an area or district dental officer, who would run the county school dental service. [8] In 1952 there were 827 school dental officers. [9]

In Warwickshire, a dentist would visit a secondary school twice a week, and a child would have two check ups a year, with an individual dental record card. [10]

A county education authority would run the service, later replaced by the regional health authority from 1974, often known as the Community Dental Service.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dentist</span> Health care occupations caring for the mouth and teeth

A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in providing oral health services. The dental team includes dental assistants, dental hygienists, dental technicians, and sometimes dental therapists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Navy Dental Corps</span> Medical-focused staff corps of the United States Navy

The Dental Corps of the United States Navy consists of naval officers with a doctorate in either dental surgery (DDS) or dental medicine (DMD) and who practice dentistry for Sailors and Marines to ensure optimal oral health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UCLA School of Dentistry</span> Medical school in Los Angeles, California, United States

The UCLA School of Dentistry is the dental school of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in the Center for Health Sciences building in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. The school has several educational and training programs, conducts oral and dental health research, and offers affordable dental care at three locations: Westwood, Venice, and Inglewood. The school also participates in several outreach endeavors, including numerous health fairs during the year, STEM pipeline programs and provides dental care for underserved populations in the region. The School of Dentistry is considered among the nation's best research-intensive dental schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dental education throughout the world</span>

Dentistry throughout the world is practiced differently, and training in dentistry varies as well.

East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine is the dental school at East Carolina University. It is North Carolina's second dental school, which enrolled its inaugural class in the fall of 2011. ECU SoDM was established to address the shortage of dentists in the rural regions across North Carolina. It serves North Carolina statewide by educating more dentists, with the primary focus of student recruitment being students who desire to return to rural and underserved areas to provide oral health care. The SoDM built 8 community service learning centers located in rural and underserved areas throughout the state. The students will complete nine-week rotations at the service learning centers during their final year of study.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tooth brushing</span> Act of scrubbing teeth with a toothbrush

Tooth brushing is the act of scrubbing teeth with a toothbrush equipped with toothpaste. Interdental cleaning can be useful with tooth brushing, and together these two activities are the primary means of cleaning teeth, one of the main aspects of oral hygiene. The recommended amount of time for tooth brushing is two minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Service Act 1946</span> United Kingdom legislation

The National Health Service Act 1946 came into effect on 5 July 1948 and created the National Health Service in England and Wales thus being the first implementation of the Beveridge model. Though the title 'National Health Service' implies a single health service for the United Kingdom, in reality one NHS was created for England and Wales accountable to the Secretary of State for Health, with a separate NHS created for Scotland accountable to the Secretary of State for Scotland by the passage of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947. Similar health services in Northern Ireland were created by the Northern Ireland Parliament through the Health Services Act 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dental public health</span>

Dental Public Health (DPH) is a para-clinical specialty of dentistry that deals with the prevention of oral disease and promotion of oral health. Dental public health is involved in the assessment of key dental health needs and coming up with effective solutions to improve the dental health of populations rather than individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Australian Army Dental Corps</span> Administrative corps of the Australian Army

The Royal Australian Army Dental Corps (RAADC) is a corps within the Australian Army. It was formed on 23 April 1943 during World War II as the Australian Army Dental Corps, before being granted the 'Royal' prefix in 1948. Prior to its formation dentists were part of the Australian Army Medical Corps. The role of the RAADC is to provide dental care to army personnel in order to minimise the requirement for the evacuation of dental casualties, to conserve manpower and to reduce the burden of casualty evacuation. In the post-war years, the corps has provided personnel to deployments in Japan, Korea and Vietnam. It has also contributed to peace-keeping operations in Somalia, Rwanda, Bougainville and East Timor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small Smiles Dental Centers</span> American dental company

Small Smiles Dental Centers was a privately-owned US chain of dental clinics focused on serving children from low-income families. The parent company, Church Street Health Management (CSHM), has its headquarters in Suite 520 of the Castner-Knott Building in Nashville, Tennessee. As of 2010, Church Street was the largest dental management company in the United States, and for a period it was the largest dental chain for children in the United States. As of March 2014, Small Smiles had 53 offices, and it stated that it served hundreds of thousands of children annually. As of September 2021, Small Smiles appeared to have one location in Reno, Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Community health center</span>

A healthcare center, health center, or community health center is one of a network of clinics staffed by a group of general practitioners and nurses providing healthcare services to people in a certain area. Typical services covered are family practice and dental care, but some clinics have expanded greatly and can include internal medicine, pediatric, women’s care, family planning, pharmacy, optometry, laboratory testing, and more. In countries with universal healthcare, most people use the healthcare centers. In countries without universal healthcare, the clients include the uninsured, underinsured, low-income or those living in areas where little access to primary health care is available. In the Central and East Europe, bigger health centers are commonly called policlinics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kool Smiles</span> American dental company

Kool Smiles is a dental services provider, based in the United States. Its headquarters are in the Kool Smiles Patient Support Center in Marietta, Georgia, U.S., in Greater Atlanta and has over 100 offices located across sixteen states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in dentistry</span> The involvement of women in dentistry

There is a long history of women in dentistry. Women are depicted as assistant dentists in the middle ages. Prior to the 19th century, dentistry was largely not yet a clearly defined and regulated profession with formal educational requirements. Individual female dentists are known from the 18th century. When the profession was regulated in the 19th century, it took a while before women achieved the formal education and permission to engage in dentistry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey A. Parker</span> American businessman and education philanthropist

Jeffrey Alan Parker was an American businessman and education philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarrell Dental & Eye Centers</span>

Sarrell Dental and Eye Centers, based in Anniston, Alabama, was the largest dental provider in the state of Alabama. Sarrell was organized as a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization in 2005, and operated 12 dental clinics, 4 clinics include vision care and a mobile dental bus. As of January 1, 2022, Sarrell Dental & Eye Centers rebranded to Advantage Dental+.

ReachOut Healthcare America (RHA) is a dental management services company with its headquarters in Farmington Hills, Michigan. It is a part of the private equity portfolio of Morgan Stanley. The company operates in 22 U.S. states. In 2011 the company coordinated dental care at 8,700 schools and coordinated the processing of 488,000 children in those schools. As of May 2012 the company has coordinated the processing of 1.5 million patients. ReachOut seeks to coordinate treatment for underserved children on Medicaid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All Smiles Dental Centers</span>

All Smiles Dental Centers (ADSC) was an American chain of dental clinics, with its headquarters in Farmers Branch, Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, The chain operates dental clinics in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and in Greater Houston. The company was the management service organization providing business support services to All Smiles Dental Professionals, P.C. The patients mostly consisted of children in low-income Hispanic communities.

Smile Starters Dental, formerly Medicaid Dental Center (MDC), is a chain of dental clinics in North Carolina. As MDC, it operated under the names Smile Starters and Carolina Dental Center. Historically, its owners were Letitia L. "Tish" Ballance of Charlotte, North Carolina and Michael DeRose of Pueblo, Colorado. DeRose was also a partner in FORBA, the company that owns the Small Smiles Dental Centers. In 2008 the chain operated seven dental clinics.

Dentistry provided by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom is supposed to ensure that dental treatment is available to the whole population. Most dentistry is provided by private practitioners, most of whom also provide, on a commercial basis, services which the NHS does not provide, largely cosmetic. Most adult patients have to pay some NHS charges, although these are often significantly cheaper than the cost of private dentistry. The majority of people choose NHS dental care rather than private care: as of 2005, the national average proportion of people opting for private care was 23%. NHS dentistry is not always available and is not managed in the way that other NHS services are managed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sedley Taylor</span>

Sedley Taylor was a British academic, librarian and one of the Professors at the Trinity College in Cambridge, England. He is known for his works on the science of music and on profit-sharing in industry.

References

  1. ↑ Western Mail Wednesday 30 November 1898, page 6
  2. ↑ "Trinity College Chapel - Sedley Taylor". trinitycollegechapel.com.
  3. ↑ Saffron Walden Weekly News Friday 8 February 1907, page 6
  4. ↑ Cambridge Daily News Thursday 28 January 1909, page 2
  5. ↑ Cambridge Daily News Wednesday 17 February 1909, page 2
  6. ↑ Cambridge Daily News Saturday 3 July 1982, page 2
  7. ↑ Manchester Evening News Thursday 4 March 1999, page 10
  8. ↑ Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 14 April 1983, page 18
  9. ↑ "School Dental Service - Hansard - UK Parliament".
  10. ↑ Birmingham Daily Post Monday 4 September 1995, page 12
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.