It has been twelve years since Nursing Care Insurance was introduced in Japan. The population of Needed Long-Term Care exceeded five million in 2012, which is twice of that in 2000, the year the insurance started. The majority of them are over 85 years old. Care manager supports nursing-care service synthetically by assessing the need of Needed Long-Term Care and preparing plans for care.
At care management, the condition of oral is hard to figure out just by seeing from outside and it is also difficult to let people open their mouths. This is the reason why the observation of oral condition is missed in many assessments of care needs. Most of the time both senior citizens and caregivers do not mention about their oral conditions unless they have pain or problems in biting. The problems of oral are gathered as“consumption ability”.
In the research Hattori did in 2011, which objected care managers, the existence of dentistry in assessments was asked. Thirty-one percent answered that it is barely included and 33 percent answered that 10 percent of the assessments includes it. For the question, which asked about cooperation with dentists in the stage of care planning, 36 percent answered almost none and 52 percent answered that it is carried only for about 10 percent of the total case. It is clear that the cooperation with dentists and care managers is very little in the actual situations.
It is required to not giving up eating by using mouths, to prevent infectious diseases by oral care and to position the management of tooth loss or conformity of artificial tooth.
