Kōrero: Dental care

Major G. McCallum and Sergeant C. J. S. Poulton, dental officers in the New Zealand Dental Unit stationed in Italy, treat a patient in a tent set up as a dental-surgery unit in April 1944. Civilian dentists examined the teeth of enlisted men and did any dental work they needed before mobilisation. They worked with the New Zealand Dental Corps to ensure that all of the First Echelon of New Zealand troops, who embarked on 5 January 1940, were 'dentally fit'. Dentists in the Dental Corps travelled with the troops and provided dental care when and where servicemen needed dentistry. They travelled with their equipment and set up temporary surgeries – like this one – wherever their services were needed.