2019 Volume 40 Issue 1 Pages 59-66
The Tsuyama Center for Oral Health was founded in 1988 as a core dental care site for individuals with disabilities in the northern part of Okayama prefecture. While Yakushiji reported on the state of and regional activities related to dental care for disabled individuals at this Center in 2005, no studies have investigated the recent state of such care. Therefore, we investigated the state of new patients who visited the Center over the past 6 years in order to determine the current state and how to respond to continuously changing social conditions, as well as to contribute to future activities.
Of the new patients who visited our Center between 2010 and 2015, we gathered data such as age, disease, and questions from the medical records and medical history forms recorded at the initial visit for 71 patients treated at the Disabled Individual Dental Treatment Department.
Of the subjects, 63％ lived in Tsuyama city, while the remaining patients came from nearby regions. The same trend was seen for age distribution, with approximately half of the patients aged 20 years or younger. In terms of disabilities and diseases of the patients, intellectual disorders accounted for approximately 25％, which was approximately the same percentage as the previous investigation, while autism increased from 16％ to 24％. Disabilities related to the limbs and trunk decreased to fewer than 10％ of patients. Fewer subjects （36％） answered that they visited our Center due to a mental/physical disorder or systemic disease than in the previous investigation （52％）, while an increasing number answered that the reason was wanting to undergo regular checkup or due to being referred.
These results suggested that activities conducted at our Center are highly evaluated regionally, and that the Center should be enhanced as a secondary medical facility.
