Story: Dental care

In 1935 the incoming Labour government announced plans to rapidly extend the School Dental Service (SDS) and provide care for all children within five years. Numbers in training increased and the new Dominion School for Dental Nurses was officially opened in Wellington in 1940. Large numbers of schoolchildren received dental care from trainee dental nurses at the training school. Forty-nine children at a time were seated in dentists' chairs in the vast clinic, each serviced by a trainee nurse. In the waiting room children were supplied with books, toys and magazines to keep them busy until the dental nurse assigned to them was free. This Weekly review film was made to mark the extension of the SDS at the end of 1945, and highlights the quality of training received by dental nurses.