The Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry is committed to education and research on oral health promotion and prevention of oral diseases through approaches toward individuals and groups. In Japan, dental caries in children is on a decreasing trend and tooth loss in adults is becoming less common. In other words, people's oral health has improved. Such changes have been achieved by various factors, such as efforts of dentists, oral health policies (activities for promoting dental health among children and mothers, students, adults, and elders, etc.), social maturity, and greater health awareness among people.
Dental medicine is not only intended to treat dental caries and periodontal disease. One of the key activities demanded for modern dental medicine is to determine people's emerging oral needs with social changes and how to respond to them. Therefore, this department strives to contribute to development of a broad range of solutions, by establishing new health theories for a new era, developing technology to attain and maintain health, collecting and analyzing latest information on diverse oral health information, etc. through utilization of knowledge of basic science, applied science, social science, humanities, etc.
Researchers in this department have study and research experience at domestic and overseas institutions, and their research activities are characterized by a wide range, such as basic research and fieldwork on the current state of oral health at locations such as elementary schools, corporations, and public health centers. Such experience also serves an opportunity to see various fields beyond dental medicine.