Dental Caries in London School-children (1929-47)

The present paper is a continuation of a series describing the dental condition of 5-year-old London County Council school-children in 1929, 1943, and 1945 (Mellanby and Coumoulos, 1944, 1946). Between July and the end of October, 1947, 1,590 such children were examined with the object of finding whether the improvement observed in 1943 and 1945 had been maintained. The children lived in the same areas of London, and in the majority of cases attended the same schools as those used for the earlier surveys. A few of the schools previously visited were no longer available ; substitutes in the same localities were then provided by the London County Council. As before, only children who had attained their fifth birthday but had not yet reached their sixth were selected, the average age being the same as in the other surveys. Although the presence of any permanent teeth erupting or erupted was recorded, this report refers only to the deciduous dentition.,