2015 Volume 53 Issue 4 Pages 455-461
With the present low birthrate in Japan, the relative value of each child is increased and caregivers desire to provide their children with early qualified dental treatment. Although pediatric dental specialists should be recognized as dentists who have both knowledge and skill to meet the needs of their child patients, national consensus in Japan that dental treatment of children should be conducted by pediatric dental specialists has not been reached. In order to develop a suitable strategy toward that end, a survey was conducted regarding awareness of those specialists by caregivers of child patients. The following results were obtained.
1.Eighty-three percent of the caregivers expressed a desire for their child to visit a pediatric dental specialist for treatment.
2.Sixty percent of the caregivers recognized that the dentist caring for their child was a pediatric dental specialist.
3.Thirty-four percent of the caregivers noted “because the dentist is a pediatric dental specialist” as their reason for selecting that dentist.
4.Only 7.5% of caregivers understood the difference between a pediatric dental specialist (“sen-moni” in Japanese) and a dentist who claims to have a pediatric specialty (“hyou-bou-i”)
Our findings indicated that caregivers want their child to visit a pediatric dental specialist, however,the value and merit of seeing such a specialist are not well recognized. It is important to make efforts to form a national consensus that pediatric dental specialists offer high quality dental treatment for children by showing their existence and value. In addition, it is important to investigate methods to increase public awareness as well as quality through mutual sharing of information concerning pediatric dentistry.
