70 per cent. Since 1947 continuation-school students* have been given the same service as well. A few wealthier communes have extended free care of teeth also to younger children aged three to six, and to young people between fourteen and eighteen. Local health insurance companies in a few communes contribute financially for an annual check-up up to the age of 21.

In 1969, between 600 and 700 dentists were employed in this school dental program on full-time or part-time basis. Annual costs run to nearly 40 million crowns. Main financial support comes from the communes, but the national government pays one-fourth of expenses for salaries. The province usually contributes some support as well. Local voluntary health organizations have often taken active part in helping found and finance school dental clinics.

Public Dental Protection (Folketannrøkt)

Much of the work done on children's teeth was time and money wasted, experience showed, because regular care was not continued after they grew up. In 1949, therefore, the Norwegian Parliament passed a law on public dental service which helps protect the entire population. The law provides that all children and young people between the ages of six and eighteen shall have free dental treatment. The lower age limit may be set at three years. Dentists employed in this program are stationed over the whole country just like district public health doctors, their numbers proportionate to the size of the population. They work in public dental clinics, to which all adults also have access for treatment at standardized rates. Fees for service are fixed in the public dental office, in other words, but not in private

ones.

Pupils who do not go on for further schooling at one of the three- or fiveyear gymnasiums may continue their studies for a year or two at a so-called continuation school, which is like an extension of the elementary school on a

higher level.

The program for public dental care is administered on a provincial basis and will include all communes regardless of location, financial status, or condition of communications. (This provision means a lot for communities far off in the mountains, many of which have never had a dentist before.) As this general plan is gradually carried out, it will include and replace the school program. Meanwhile a given province may temporarily have both kinds of publicly supported dental service at once. When a province has worked out the plans for its dental clinics, it submits them first to all its communes for their comment and criticism, and then to the Ministry of Social Affairs for approval.* The King decides when the enactment for a given province shall go into effect. Here as in the health insurance plan, the emphasis is on local initiative and control.

Those of the clientele who are between the ages of six and eighteen are entitled to complete systematic preventive treatment, as well as dental surgery and dentures if necessary-all free. The law also provides for straightening irregular teeth or defective jaws of children. Adults or paying customers can get any treatment they need. The law emphasizes preventive measures, and directs that all patients shall be given instruction in proper nutriton and other subjects of importance for healthy teeth. Some day, it is hoped, dental service may be made free to all.

Expenses of this broader public program are divided between the national government, the province and the communes. The State pays sixty per cent of the cost of salaries in the conutryside, and thirty per cent in urban areas.

Putting the law into effect has been hampered by lack of dentists, so those provinces which have always had most trouble in getting them were provided with the publicly appointed ones first: Finnmark, Troms, Nordland and Nord-Trøndelag-the provinces lying farthest north-and then Sør-Trøndelag, Sogn og Fjordane and Aust-Agder.

* See also the Bureau of Dentistry under the Directorate of Health Services,

By 1969 this service had been extended to 13 of the 20 provinces. It is estimated that Norway will need about 1,000 district dentists when the program is in full operation. Two-thirds of these will be employed full-time, the others part-time; for of course private practice in dentistry will also continue.

Financial help given the patient by public health insurance is limited to partial refund of the dentist's bill for tooth extraction and a number of dental operations or other treatment necessary for general health. Surgery to the jaw and treatment of diseases of the gums are also included. Patients with cleft palate and harelip are refunded according to normal rates the cost of orthodontic regulation which usually must follow surgery. These patients are also given financial assistance for artificial teeth. Upon application, the individual insurance offices can contribute to still other tooth or jaw treatment necessiated on medical grounds, if national headquarters approves. The total cost of dental benefits paid out by the health insurance program was about 20.7 million crowns in 1968.

Inmates of a large number of medical institutions, reform schools and prisons, boarding-schools for handicapped persons, homes for the blind, deaf, and crippled, etc., are given full dental care at government expense. The Norwegian medical offices for seamen in New York, London and Antwerp also have dental clinics for sailors away from home.

Dentistry for the military is done mainly by drafted dentists, who serve their compulsory military training in this way. Treatment is given in modern dental clinics in the army camps. Military dentistry is administered by a chief dentist responsible to the Director General of the Joint Medical Services (Major-General).

Training of Dentists

Dentists are educated at the Faculties of Dentistry of the Universities in Oslo and Bergen. Altogether 125 students are admitted each year,

1966 the course of studies has lasted five years. Tuition is free, but students must pay for their living costs, textbooks and a few small fees.

Norway and its neighbor Sweden are the countries in the world which have most dentists in proportion to their population: but even so, for reasons mentioned earlier, Norway has far from enough. Therefore, as a temporary measure, a good number of dental students receive their training abroad. They have to enroll first at the Nor wegian Faculty of Dentistry; then attend only those schools in other lands which meet the highest standards and approval of Norwegian authorities, and when they have secured their degree abroad, come back to a final supplementary course at the School of Dentistry in Norway.

Dental Technicians

The work of dental technicians is in Norway considered a handicraft, and is regulated under the laws which apply to all manual skills. Training consists of one year at a special school followed by five years' apprenticeship. There is a shortage of dental technicians in Norway; the school in Oslo can take only eight students a year.

Their field of work is clearly separated from that of dentists. Following instructions, impressions, models, etc., which the dentist sends over, the technician makes the inlay, bridge, plate, or whatever is needed.