JAPAN TIMES




 

Dentists from Aichi Prefecture are working in Vietnam on an initiative to introduce the Japanese system of conducting dental checkups in school to help solve the high rate of tooth decay among children in the country.

As well as visiting schools to conduct checkups to prevent cavities, the dentists teach Vietnamese dental students how to give children instructions on oral hygiene.

Five years after the project was launched, oral health awareness is growing in the nation, with more children going to the dentist.

One day in late March, children at Luong The Vinh Elementary School in the city of Tra Vinh in southern Vietnam's Tra Vinh province were getting a dental checkup.

Students of Tra Vinh University’s Faculty of Dentistry looked in their mouths to check for cavities or gum disease and wrote down the checkup results on a sheet.

“I don’t like brushing my teeth very much, but I’m doing my best,” said Phuc, 8, a second grader who went through the checkup.

There are no programs for regular dental checkups for children growing up in Vietnam, and awareness of cavity prevention and overall oral care is said to be low.

Surveys show nearly 90% of elementary school students in the country have tooth decay, higher than the 30% among those in Japan.

Attempts to introduce Japanese-style school dental checkups started in 2020 as a five-year project at the request of the government of Tra Vinh province.

The provincial government asked Nagato Natsume, 68, a professor of dentistry at Aichi Gakuin University in Aichi Prefecture, who has been offering medical support in Vietnam for more than 30 years, for help. The Japanese Society of Oral Care, of which Natsume is a member, launched the project in response.

Takayuki Kawana, a 45-year-old dentist who graduated from Aichi Gakuin University’s Graduate School, is involved in the project as an executive director of Daishinkai, a medical corporation that operates dental clinics in Japan’s Kanto region and in Vietnam.

Kawana said he was shocked to see children rush to a penny candy shop inside the school in between classes.

Many of them were buying sweets as they hadn't had breakfast, contributing to tooth decay.

“I thought it is necessary to change the mindset not only of children, but also of schools and their families,” Kawana said, recalling the time when the project first began.

Local dental clinics also had little knowledge of measures to prevent tooth decay.

In the project, aspiring dentists are educated on tips for practicing good oral care.

Although the activities were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, dental checkups and lessons on oral care are currently conducted at all of the 17 elementary schools in the city.

“Through conducting checkups, I learned the importance of oral care and how to empathize with patients,” said Quyen, 21, a junior at Tra Vinh University’s Faculty of Dentistry.

The initiative is already showing a positive impact.
After the project’s launch, the percentage of first graders seeing a dentist rose from 57.6% to 64.9%.

The rate of those feeling scared of dentists dropped from 39.9% to 29.3%.
The activities are highly acknowledged in the community and the Japanese Society of Oral Care decided on extending the initiative five more years from this year.

Natsume, who attended a signing ceremony for the extension held in Tra Vinh, said, “We hope to make Tra Vinh province a model case to expand the project throughout Vietnam.”

Maintaining oral hygiene also reduces the risk of viral and bacterial infections.

“By fundamentally reforming the system of dental checkups, we want to promote the health of children in Vietnam,” Kawana said.