Journal vol.1 no.1 abstract4 of The Japan Health Care Dental Association

The Journal of The Japan Health Care Dental Association Vol.1 No.1, 1999
abstract

Tatsuo Namikoshi

I opened a dental clinic at a town of 7,500 population where there was only one dental clinical facility available. The patients' oral health conditions were far worse beyond my expectation. I was given chances to examine oral health conditions of the most children in the town as a school dentist. I adopted possible measures in turn in my school health activities; 1) not using explorer at the examination, 2) the diagnosis of" regard the questionable tooth as a healthy tooth", 3) instruction of the fluorine application for treatment of primary caries, 4) mouth washing with 0.2% NaF once a week. Consequently, the DMFT index of 12 year-old children at the elementary school declined to 1.2 in 1998 from 3.0 in 1994, and the caries-free ratio of permanent tooth in the same age group was improved to 50.6% from 31.4%. Having focused on local dental health activity at first, contributed greatly to the preparation of the establishment of preventive dental practice in my clinic.