Abstract
Objective：The current situation of the dental health care delivery system at oral （dental） health centers （oral health centers） is severe, with large regional disparities, and there is an urgent need to correct this situation. Accordingly, we conducted a survey on the roles of oral health centers and how collaboration and support should be provided by our Society, grasped the current situation, extracted issues, and examined the collaboration between oral health centers and the Society in promoting dental care services for children and persons with disabilities.
Subjects and Methods：After obtaining approval from the Japanese Association for Dental Science, we mailed an explanation of the purpose of the survey, the questions, and the URL and a two-dimensional barcode of Google forms with which to answer the questions, to 343 oral health centers.
Results：Responses were obtained from 215 centers that agreed to participate in the survey. Of these, 142 （66.0％） were facilities that accepted dental care for children and persons with disabilities （intellectual disability, physical disability, mental disorder, children with medical complexity, and intractable disease）, so these 142 facilities were included in the analysis. Oral health centers are places to develop human resources to manage oral health and provide dental care for children and adults with disabilities who are difficult to treat at primary dental institutions, but many facilities thought that “dental care by highly specialized staff who can take disability into consideration” was necessary. The most common cooperation and support received so far from the Society was “accreditation and training of training institutions for board-certified doctors and specialists” （29） and “provision of information on dentistry for special needs patients” （13）. The cooperation and support they would like to receive in the future were “dispatch of lecturers for workshops, etc.” （62） and “consultation on expertise in accepting special cases of dentistry for patients with disabilities” （52）.
Conclusion：To provide comprehensive dental health care and oral health management at oral health centers, it is considered necessary for the Society to provide “consultation on expertise in accepting special cases of dentistry for patients with disabilities,” which has not been done much in the past.
