RESULTS 



to have received adequate treatment, the kind of treatment being speci- 

 fied. 



A statement of sources of treatment; that is, private physicians 

 or dentists, specialists, clinics, hospitals, etc., with number of children 

 treated by each. 



A statement of the number of children who failed to receive ef- 

 fective treatment, classified to show causes of failure; that is, parental 

 neglect or opposition, poverty, lack of adequate or accessible clinics, 

 lack of intelligent co-operation by clinics and family physicians, etc. 



A statement of ultimate results on health and school standing pro- 

 duced by specified kinds of treatment in children suffering from each sort 

 of defect. 



Such a report would furnish a basis for the formulation of 

 policies now generally lacking. If, for example, it revealed a 

 large amount of parental neglect of serious conditions when 

 adequate means of securing treatment for such conditions existed 

 in the community, the need of a new type of educational activity 

 directed toward the older generation would be made evident. If 

 on the other hand there were revealed many cases where lack of 

 facilities for medical, surgical, or dental treatment was the cause 

 of unsatisfactory results, the problem of securing adequate facili- 

 ties for treatment would be placed squarely before the educational 

 and health authorities with its alternative of continued waste 

 of public funds in ineffective inspection. 



RECORDS OF DEFECTS TREATED IN NEW YORK CITY 



New York occupies the first place in the discussion of this 

 subject, both on account of the size of its problem and because the 

 history of its endeavor to cope with that problem is an unusually 

 long and instructive one. Treatments, as reported by the Division 

 of Child Hygiene of the Department of Health for the year 191 1, 

 include all cases where report of attention received was made by 

 physicians. Instructions in mouth hygiene by nurses, said to have 

 been given in all cases where defective teeth were discovered, are 

 not included. The figures undoubtedly include many cases where 

 treatment never went beyond the initial visit to a physician. 

 Moreover, according to the director of the Division of Child 

 Hygiene of the Department of Health, they include cases where 



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