Construction of disaster dental health care system in dental association

<p>Many dentists who are responsible for “medical care that protects and supports people’s lives” in normal times belong to local dental associations and play a role in comprehensive community care in collaboration with multiple professions from normal times. If a disaster occurs, they work with local governments and dental schools to dispatch Japan Dental Alliance Team (JDAT) to provide assistance in cooperation with multiple professions. The Iwate Dental Association’s response to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 was to work together with related professions that had been cooperating with each other since normal times to provide emergency dental treatment, denture fabrication in cooperation with dental technicians, and oral hygiene management guidance in cooperation with dental hygienists to victims at evacuation centers, elderly care facilities, etc., as well as to confirm their identity through dental findings and other dental health care services were provided over a long period of time. In this way, dental professionals have been involved not only in the prevention of oral infections but also in the prevention of respiratory infections and oral frailty through oral health management on a daily basis, and disaster dental support activities are an extension of these activities. It will continue to be important to inform young dental association members in conjunction with human resource development at training schools.</p>