Abstract
Public dental health activities are important factors for maintaining good dental health among residents in a community. To fulfill the needs of the community, sufficient dental manpower is essential and also public-health-minded students should be educated at the undergraduate level in dental schools.
In this context, we conducted a questionnaire survey of the opinions of senior dental students from five dental schools in the Tokyo area with the support of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Public Health.
On the basis of the survey, this paper deals with the students' attitudes to public dental health activities, specifically focusing on how prior experience in the observation and practice of the activities in health centers affects these attitudes.
Willingness to participate in public dental health activities after graduation was found at a significantly higher level in those students who had had experience in observing and practicing the activities in health centers. They also selected a wider variety of professional dental careers for their future.
