Smyrna times., 1941-10-02
TEETH
OF PUPILS HERE
State Board of Health to Send
Dental Hygienist for
Examinations
USE EDUCATIONAL WORK

School is now under way as is
the work of the dental hygienists
employed by the State Board of
Health who spend the majority of
their time during school months
teaching the students the import
ance of good dental hygiene. Miss
Loura Cholodanco and Miss Kath-
ryn Battan, members of the staff
of the Kent County Health Unit in
Dover, conduct the program in this
part of the state. In every school
in Kent County as throughout the
state, county unit dental hygien-
lists will make examinations of the
teeth of children in grades one,
two, three and six. Parents are
invited to be present when the ex-
animation is made but when they
cannot come they are told of the
results of the examination by let
ter or card. Parents are urged to
take their children to their own
family dentist as soon as possible.
When all work has been completed,
the dentist is asked to sign the
child's corrective advice card"
which is then returned to his teach
er
Routine examinations are inef-
fective unless the child knows the
purpose of the examination and the
good results that may be obtained
through the correction of defects.
In order that the child may receive
such information, various types of
educational work will be presented
in each one of the elementary
grades and in Junior and Senior
High Schools by request.
Many forms of educational work
are used in the schools-moving
pictures, lantern slides, talks CIV
en- with the aid of posters and mod
els, and prophylaxes Tin simpler
terms, to have their teeth cleaned) 4.
However, it is the prophylaxes
which tends to be the most effec-
tive. But this means at least thir-
ty minutes work with each individ-
ual child and we are handicapped
by not having a staff large enough
to take care of the many thou
sands of children in our elementary
schools. This procedure must,
therefore, be limited to those
grades where it will be conclusive
to the greatest good.
Naturally the third and the sixth
grades believe that they are the
favored children for it is they who
are privileged to receive a prophy-
lakes. They are given mirror in
which they may see what their
teeth look like before the dental
hygienist cleans them and then
they look into thte mirror after
ward to see how clean their teeth
are. While the teeth are being
cleaned, good nutrition, good daily
home care and periodic visits to the
dentist are discussed by the dental
hygienist. The child leaves the
dental chair with a better knowl-
edge of mouth hygiene.
Particular emphasis was placed
on dental corrections by Miss Chol-
odanco and Miss Battan last year.
Effort was made by them to stimu-
late community interest in having
dental defects corrected just so
much so as any other defect the
child may have. Results were most
gratifying and completely surpass-
ed those of past years. They plan
to follow the same procedure this
year.
The wise parent will follow the
valuable advice given by dental
hygienists and all others interested
in the dental welfare of children.
Dental authorities agree that the
child should make his first visit to
the dentist at the age of three or
even earlier and that subsequent