2016 Volume 66 Issue 5 Pages 445-451
There are 51 remote but inhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture. According to the results of a survey of dental disease, those who lived on islands had fewer teeth compared with mainland residents in Nagasaki Prefecture. This might be caused by poor accessibility to dental clinics experienced by residents on islands. However, this has yet to be studied. Nagasaki University surveyed dental disease among 1,053 residents living on Kabashima, Hisakajima, and Saganoshima (remote island with no dentist), Fukuejima, and Narushima in Goto City from 2005 to 2010. Goto City government conducted a questionnaire survey on experience and demand for dental treatment among residents living on Kabashima, Hisakajima, and Saganoshima in October 2010. Questionnaires were sent to all 477 households, and 166 of them responded. A total of 198 residents living on remote islands with no dentists had an average of 10.8 (S.D.=10.5) teeth, and 32.3% of them had lost all of their teeth. In comparison, 855 residents living on islands with dentists had an average of 15.9 (S.D.=10.4) teeth and 15.6% of them had lost all of their teeth. That is, residents who lived on islands with no dentist had fewer teeth and a high rate of edentulism compared with residents who lived on islands with dentists (p<0.01). About half of the residents of islands with no dentist (45.4%) had an experience of tooth extraction based on their own request in order to reduce the frequency of having to visit a dental clinic. Also, about 90% of respondents wanted to receive dental treatment on the island where they lived. It can be suggested that one reason for this is that patients who have acute dental symptoms might prefer tooth extraction rather than conservative treatment because there are temporal and geographical restrictions on remote islands with no dentist. On our targeted islands, a system for improving accessibility to dental clinics should be established urgently.
