Abstract
In the early years of the Showa Era (1926-1989), school dental health education were increasingly systematized by school dentists, teachers and school nurses. For dental health education, a variety of teaching materials and instruments were used along with textbooks to give children the knowledge required for good dental health, but they were not organized very well. Lectures and seminars were often given by school dentists. In addition, events such as juvenile talks and plays were given for all students or each grade of students. Dental health training was conducted to help children put the knowledge they obtained about dental health into practice. This mostly consisted of brushing (how to use a toothbrush), rinsing and chewing. It was conducted for all students in each class, grade or school. This certainly made children recognize the necessity of brushing and led to a change in their behavior, although it cannot be denied that individualized instruction was behind the times. With the war regime, the dental health education system, which was originally intended to have children learn to brush their teeth in a correct manner and make a habit of doing it, changed to concentrate on collective and spiritual training and could not be expected to have any significant effect on dental health.
