2019 Volume 27 Issue 4 Pages 360-368
Rapidly advancing population aging represents a major financial burden for the Japanese government. To sustain the medical insurance system and the long-term care provision, efforts have been initiated in various fields of academic research as well as in medical, health, welfare, and community settings, with healthy longevity as a central policy goal.
Although the oral health status of the Japanese people has improved during the past three decades, oral disease remains prevalent and the oral health gap persists. However, to forge ahead toward effective and sustainable solutions to these challenges, we must go beyond the narrow confines of the oral health field and set our sights on truly multi-sectorial collaboration.
On the other hand, accumulated evidence from the past two decades suggests that several pathways connect dental care and oral health with healthy life expectancy: (1) age-related changes and aging, (2) life expectancy, (3) NCDs as the main causes of death and the common risk factors thereof, (4) diseases that cause conditions requiring long-term care, (5) health promotion activities such as nutrition, exercise, and rest, and (6) socioeconomic factors.
Based on this body of scientific evidence, a novel "one health approach", which reorients oral health care as an integral component of general health policy, would effectively decrease the national health insurance budget while preventing NCDs and frailty and achieving further improvements in oral health. Health policymakers should recognize the great but often overlooked potential of oral health to contribute to a sustainable social security system.
