Later, as the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was raised, a dental officer was recruited and situated in each military district with the remit of providing advice to senior medical personnel. They were not to carry out dental procedures, however, and as a result civilian dentists offered free services to soldiers while undertaking training in Australia. Upon the AIF's arrival in Egypt in 1915, General William Throsby Bridges argued the case for dentists to be attached to the army in the field, stating that it would reduce the instances of soldiers having to be evacuated from the field as 'dental casualties'. While some progress towards mitigating this was taken in January 1915 when the Australian Army Medical Corps (Dental) Reserve was approved, appointments were slow and consequently the AIF troops that deployed to Gallipoli did so without dental support. Dental health became a serious problem for the Australian army on the Gallipoli Peninsula, contributing as early as June 1915 to a significant number of medical evacuations from the front lines. By July 1915, over 600 soldiers from the 1st Division alone had been evacuated as dental casualties.