Wars greatly influenced the establishment of children's and hospital dental services, dental hygienists and dentistry in the NHS. In the Boer War half the men inspected were unfit for military service. Of 69,553 men inspected 4,400 were not accepted due to “loss or decay of many teeth”.1 Three official reports2,3,4 agreed on a need for increased care for children to improve the nation's health. The 1904 report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration3 and education acts passed in 19063 and 19074 were particularly important for dentistry. After passage of the 1906 act which allowed for the provision of free or subsidised school meals the British Dental Journal questioned the logic of this action when so many children had missing or decayed teeth which made eating difficult.5 The 1907 act allowed the development of publicly-funded school health services, including dentistry, and led to compulsory medical inspections in public and elementary schools. The BDJ emphasised that examinations must include the teeth but pointed out that inspection without treatment would only touch the fringe of the problem.7 Dental inspections were originally carried out by doctors but after pressure from the BDA dentists took over.

One important development was the establishment in 1906 of a dental clinic for school children in Cambridge. It was initially endowed by a Fellow of Trinity College, Sedley Taylor, after encouragement from his dentist, George Cunningham.6 This Cambridge Dental Institute was later taken over by the Borough of Cambridge as the first clinic of its school service, a move made possible by the 1907 Education Act. By 1909 there were clinics in Bradford, Cambridge, Chester, Coventry, Hove, Kettering, Great Crosby, Norwich, Reading, Sheffield, Torquay and Worthing. Dentistry became an integral part of the school medical services provided through local education authorities.

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