日本歯科医師会 Japan Dental Association

WORLD CONGRESS 2015

President Message

Mitsuo Okubo
Congress President
WORLD CONGRESS 2015
President
Japan Dental Association

The Japan Dental Association, the Japanese Association for Dental Science, the 8020 Promotion Foundation and the Japan Dental Trade Association take great pleasure in organizing the “WORLD CONGRESS 2015 – Dental care and oral health for healthy longevity in an aging society.”

Japan is the first country in the world to experience a super-aging society. In line with this situation, Japan is also facing a major challenge in dealing with the dental care of an increasing number of elderly people. The rapid aging of the population will pose serious problems for the Japanese society. It will be difficult for people to maintain a healthy life while at the same time experiencing a longer average life span. Thus a growing number of elderly people will be facing more and more health disorders. These mounting problems could damage the foundation of Japan’s public health insurance system, which was established before the rest of the world. Given such a situation, a large number of studies and data have reported the most appropriate form of dental care and oral health to achieve healthy longevity. However, these scientific evidences and evidence-based medicine (EBM) are not yet to reach a stage where they can be turned into policy recommendations. We will examine the ideal form of dental care and oral health promotion that are required now for a long, healthy life. Also, based on current situations in the dental field both here in Japan and the world we will hold discussions aimed at bringing about a policy recommendation on future dental care from a global standpoint.

A review of our ongoing campaigns conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare such as the 8020 movement and our policy for improving the quality of life of people in need of nursing care through oral health, will be extremely essential in determining what direction future dental care should take. The issue of dealing with an aging society is not only a challenge for Japan, but also for the rest of the world. We must work on this problem together by considering the future of dental care and oral health based on the results of the review. The WORLD CONGRESS 2015 aims to contribute to discussion on the policy of dental care to protect the health of the growing number of elderly people by bringing together dental experts and specialists from Japan and other countries around the world that face this same issue.

We will proceed with our preparations in order to make this congress a productive event. We seek your understanding of our intentions and look forward to your participation.