ENG-1962 — Page 200

HEALTH

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for one month every half year. A mobile dental unit serves the New Territories.

Voluntary Agencies. Three years ago the Church World Service was the first of the welfare organizations to put a mobile dental clinic on the roads of the New Territories. The clinic now serves the Salvation Army Girls Home at Kwai Chung, St Christopher's Home, the Haven of Hope Sanatorium, and the areas of Tsuen Wan, San Hui, Yuen Long, Sheung Shui, Tai Po, and Sha Tin. During the past year an average of over 800 patients a month have received treatment. A small fee is charged to help cover part of the costs. A new mobile unit is now being planned.

The Lutheran World Service also operates a mobile dental clinic which visits eight resettlement estates. There is also a dental clinic at the Lutheran World Service Hospital in Fanling, the staff being in attendance on two mornings each week. The Hong Kong Dental Society operates free clinics and provides a part-time dental service in Hong Kong and Kowloon as well as volunteer dental surgeons for the Ruttonjee Anti-Tuberculosis Sanatorium and St John Ambulance Brigade teams visiting the outlying islands.

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The St John Ambulance Brigade maintains a dental clinic at its headquarters, where two dentists provide free treatment for blind and crippled children and for children from orphanages and in- stitutions. Other voluntary bodies and welfare organizations main- tain free or low cost dental clinics and many dentists give their services free of charge. At the end of the year more than 400 dentists were registered for practice in the Colony.

Fluoridation of the Colony's urban water supplies began in 1961. The first post-fluoridation dental survey was carried out in 1962 and similar surveys are planned to take place every two years. It is expected that the enrichment of the Colony's water by 0.7 parts per million of fluoride in the summer months and by 0.9 parts per million during the winter months will bring about a marked reduction in the incidence of dental caries.

Dental health education plays a large part in the preventive measures which have been adopted to combat the very high in- cidence of dental disease in Hong Kong. A dental health exhibit was included at the agricultural show at Sai Kung featuring the mobile dental clinics operated by Government, the Church World