2026 Volume 76 Issue 3 Pages 150-156
Kampo medicine, which developed uniquely in Japan on the basis of Chinese medicine ─ one of the systems of traditional Eastern medicine ─ has inherited the concept of mibyou. In contrast, in the field of preventive dentistry within Western medicine, the concept of the “three levels and five stages of prevention” based on the natural history of disease was proposed in 1958 by Leavell and Clark. This framework was subsequently applied mainly to dental caries, periodontal disease, and tooth loss by Dunning in 1962. The classification of preventive levels from primary to tertiary prevention, together with the five stages of preventive measures, has since become well established in preventive medicine in Japan. Accordingly, when Kampo prescriptions are considered from the perspectives of the natural history of disease and levels of health proposed by Leavell and Clark, as well as the stages of prevention for dental diseases proposed by Dunning and the concept of treating mibyou, Kampo medicine is considered to be particularly suitable for specific protection in primary prevention and for early detection and early treatment in the initial stages of disease in secondary prevention.
