Free Dental Services Provided for Rural School Children, Sept. 10, 1919

From The University of North Carolina News-Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., Sept. 10, 1919

Free Dental Service

A system of free traveling dental service for rural-school children was established by the State Board of Health of North Carolina in July, 1918. This experiment was begun after examination of some 200,000 school children in North Carolina showed that at least 75 per cent had beginning decay in permanent teach. Less than 10 per cent of these children had ever visited a dentist except for the purpose of having an aching tooth extracted. The records also proved that at least 90 out of every 100 parents never made any effort to have their children’s teeth treated by a dentist.

This neglect is attributed by state authorities to several causes.

--Poverty

--Ignorance and indifference

--Morbid fear of the dentist

--Hesitancy of many dentists to accept young children as patients

--Lack of specific instruction in the public school on the care of the teeth.

The prime object of the work is, of course, educational. The preference has been given to the children between 6 and 12 years of age, and in some of the sections the work has been restricted entirely to children under 10 years old.

The idea is twofold: First, to teach the very small children practical care of the teeth, getting them to form the habit of regular visits to the dentist; and second, by filling or other treatment, preserve the children’s teeth until past puberty when they will be able to realize the importance of dental care.

The actual treatment has been, of course, limited in class, but ranges all the way from cleaning and extraction to the placement of permanent amalgam fillings in permanent teach.