The School Dental Clinic

How war led to a children's dental clinic

The Boer war at the start of the twentieth century had (among other things) revealed the shocking state of British teeth.

Improvements were needed. In Saltaire that prompted the creation of a school dental clinic. Surprisingly, perhaps, it faced some strong opposition for, as it turned out, some good reasons.

Bad teeth among the troops

Although ultimately victorious, during the course of the Boer War (1899-1902) Britain suffered a number of humiliating defeats. After the war, the Inter-Departmental Committee for Physical Deterioration (IDCPD) was set up to investigate the reasons for the poor performance of the Army. One identified issue was the poor dental health of the troops. Despite the Government sending dentists to attend the troops in the field and the use of local dentists, during the conflict 5000 troops had been effectively invalided out of the army due to dental problems which resulted in malnutrition.

In 1904 the IDCPD formally acknowledged that there was a clear link between dental health in school children and the defective teeth in military recruits. The report was used as evidence to lobby for better dental services and that Local Authorities should employ school dentists and consider health education.

School Clinic proposed…

It is presumably against this background that in July 1911 the Shipley Education Committee first proposed establishing a School Clinic. In December of that year, a letter from Walter Popplestone, on behalf of the Education Committee, stated that an inspection by the School Medical Officer and School Nurse revealed that many children were found to be suffering from “defects of the teeth and various other ailments”.

A proposal was put forward for a School Clinic to be established at Sir Titus Salt’s Hospital. It was originally proposed that the Clinic would operate one day a week. The Honorary Dental Surgeon, Mr H Alvin Maloney would run a Dental Clinic for half the day and the School Medical Officer and School Nurse would see children with general ailments the other half of the day, the Education Committee to cover the cost of any new appliances and all other associated payments. Significant advances had been made in dental treatment by the early 1900s. In all likelihood, an electric drill would have been one of the appliances installed and fillings would have been carried out under local anaesthetic.

…and opposed

It was not until October 1912 that representatives from the Governors of the Sir Titus Salt’s Hospital Charity met with a deputation from the Education Committee to agree the final arrangements and associated costs. However, Sir Titus Salt’s Hospital medical staff were unhappy, objecting to the dental clinic being held at the Hospital. It was their opinion that allowing children into the hospital would be “detrimental to the wellbeing of patients… if not actually dangerous”.

Mr Popplestone replied that the children would be selected and instructed to attend by the Medical Officer and that “they would come straight from school at the fixed time and under control and in this way, there would be very little noise and that infectious diseases would not be sent”. While acknowledging the concerns of the Hospital Medical staff the Governors stood by their original decision to support the proposal and it was agreed the School Clinic would open in November 1912.

School Clinic opens…

In February 1913 Mr H Alvin Maloney delivered a series of lectures, advertised in the Shipley Times and Express on January 24 1913, on “The care of teeth” to parents and guardians. (A detailed report of the lecture can be found in the Shipley Times and Express Friday 28 November 1913). The paper stated that, having inspected the teeth of 355 children from Albert Road, Central and Otley Road Schools, Mr Maloney had found that 278 decayed permanent teeth needed treatment.

However, the work could not commence until specialist apparatus was fixed in the School Clinic room at the Hospital, but it appeared there was a lack of space to house such apparatus. A suggestion was made to approach the Shipley Urban District Council (SUDC) to rent and make structural alterations (including breaking through a door) to the cottage next to the Hospital (66 Victoria Road) to allow the Dental Clinic to be set up there. This was agreed in principle by the SUDC but then in May it was discovered that discussions were taking place to locate the School Clinic at the Manor House in Shipley. As the Hospital had little use for the cottage the idea was relinquished. However, the Hospital Governors did agree to give Mr Maloney space so that a Dental Clinic could operate.

..not without problems

Unfortunately, it seems that the previous concerns of the Hospital Medical Staff were justified as a report by the Visiting Committee in June 1914 found that 134 children had been sent for dental treatment at the Hospital on Tuesday 16 June with the result that “there was no control except by a few parents and the uproar and disorder was considerable”. The Matron, Miss Dunn, also reported that “magazines had been destroyed and the waiting room furniture damaged by being stood upon”.

The Education Committee agreed to take steps to ensure this would not happen again particularly as the understanding had been that not more than 6-8 children be sent at any one time. However, numbers of children attending the clinic continued to exceed the agreed quota until it was agreed that excess numbers of children would be refused admittance.

In October 1914 the School Education Committee reported that Mr Mahoney had resigned and in November Mr A E Ellison was appointed School Dentist. By October 1916 the Hospital was being used by the Military Authorities and it was agreed with the Education Committee that the Clinic would be held elsewhere.