'As Good as Five Shillings a Week for Life': Poor Dental Health and the Establishment of Dental Provision for Schoolchildren in Edwardian London

This dissertation is an investigation into the rise of dental provision for schoolchildren in Edwardian London, which developed in response to the problem of poor dental health in late Victorian Britain. This subject has seen little attention within the fields of the history of medicine and child welfare. Owing to this academic neglect, the supporting body of bibliographic work is scarce; therefore the sources used in this research are principally contemporary. This study will discuss the causes and extent of poor dental health in schoolchildren and how the problem was perceived and addressed in the period considered. It will explore the establishment of the school dental service in Edwardian London, and will analyse the first dental clinics. This research concludes that the rise of the school dental service, from a philanthropic venture to a municipal service, marked a philosophical shift from parental and philanthropic responsibility for working class children, through the rise of the dental profession, to an acceptance and new-found political value of children by the state. This finding is significant to the theoretical medicalization of childhood and the social reconstruction of children in the Edwardian period.