The Dental and Oral Health Promotion Law was enacted in Japan in August 2011.
Regarding the meaning of this law, it is interpreted as a basic concept law on oral health.
Until enactment of the law, there was an accumulation of dental and oral health policies, enactment of local ordinances on dental health by prefectural governments, and some attempts at legislation by Diet members.
Enactment of the law was influenced by the hope of dental professionals and related persons to bring in an independent law for the dental and oral area for health promotion or health care.
Purposes of the Dental and Oral Health Promotion Law are to contribute to the improvement of health for the nation, promote oral health policies for the prevention of dental disease, and so on.
Contents of this law are as follows:
1. Purpose
2. Basic philosophy
3. Duty
4. Policies by government and local administration
5. Basic items like objectives or planning for making policies, for promoting oral and dental health
6. Financial measures
7. Oral Health Support Center
After enactment of the Dental and Oral Health Promotion Law, fully promoting the dental and oral health policies, basic items including objectives or principal plans will be made considering new activities for national health for 2013 or later.
Also, surveys or research based on the Dental and Oral Health Promotion Law will be promoted by related researchers.

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Objectives: The tongue surface is a major habitat of oral bacteria and tongue cleaning has been proposed to be useful for maintaining oral health; however, the prevalence of a tongue cleaning habit (TCH) and its manner of use in individuals is unclear. Herein, we investigated the prevalence of TCH in healthy individuals in Iwate prefecture, Japan.
Methods: We distributed a questionnaire to healthy individuals concerning tongue cleaning (having a cleaning habit, frequency of tongue cleaning, time devoted to cleaning, tools used, cue to start habit, and other related issues) in three different survey areas in Iwate prefecture. The responses were summarized and analyzed without personal identification.
Results: A total of 479 individuals anonymously completed the questionnaires (recovery rate, 67.2%). Thirty-seven percent of the respondents had a current TCH, among whom 66.7% cleaned their tongue daily (24.6% of all respondents). An ordinary toothbrush was the most frequently used tool, while special tools for tongue cleaning, i.e., tongue brush or tongue scraper, were rarely utilized. In addition, the time spent for tongue cleaning was commonly 10 to 20 seconds once a day. There were differences in the prevalence of TCH among the survey areas. Subjects in the area with the highest percentage of a TCH also most frequently reported receiving instructions for tongue cleaning from dental professionals. In addition, having a TCH was significantly associated with such an experience in that area. On the other hand, individuals in all areas with a TCH started the habit based on commercial information more frequently than by recommendations from a dental professional.
Conclusions: As compared with toothbrushing, tongue cleaning was a minor oral health behavior in our subjects, especially with specific tools. To increase the contributions of dental professionals to encouraging tongue cleaning, evidence-based consensus among dental professionals is considered to be necessary.

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Caffeine is one of the most well-known chemical compounds contained in beverages such as coffee, black tea, green tea, and oolong tea. In many cases, these beverages are drunk after being heated. In our previous in vitro studies, it was suggested that such hot caffeine (HC) solution decreased the survival rate of pathogenic bacterial species causing aspiration pneumonia more significantly than in oral bacterial species, and improved the human oral microbiota in a short period of time. For this reason, we performed a single arm, non-blinded intervention test in healthy subjects to reveal the effects of HC on the human oral microbiota. As a result, it was shown that the rate of anaerobic bacteria in the mouth-washing water increased immediately before and after intervention. In this case, the rate of Prevotella was also found to be increasing, suggesting that the increased anaerobic bacteria contained Prevotella. However, a similar increase was not observed in the mouth-washing HC solution. In the HC solution, the number and rate of anaerobic streptococci increased significantly immediately before and after intervention, suggesting that anaerobic bacteria other than Streptococci were decreasing. In contrast, the rates of Fusobacterium and Prevotella in the anaerobic bacteria were found to be increasing. These results suggest that HC caused changes in the human oral microbiota immediately after mouth washing. In addition, the number of aerobic bacteria after mouth washing with HC increased compared with the number before mouth washing in many subjects, suggesting that HC promoted biofilm exfoliation.

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The oral health examination, assessment, and health instruction program for adults is a newly developed program created by the Japan Dental Association in order to change dental health examination programs from the traditional disease-finding type to a risk-finding and health-guidance type.
The pathfinder projects are performed in companies or organizations in each prefecture, including Miyagi, Kochi, Shizuoka, and Tokyo, Japan. As part of the evaluation of the pathfinder projects, changing patterns in oral health behavior of those who attend the program before and after intervention were evaluated.
Subjects with complete records were examined. The number of subjects was 224 (mean age: 42.5, SD: 13.5). Private information was deleted from the records. Responses to 8 questions related to items of oral health behavior were extracted from 20 items in the program, and comparisons were made of responses before and after intervention.
Favorable behavioral modification was noted in many subjects for 6 items: using fluoride toothpaste, eating and drinking sweet foods, eating slowly and chewing food well, using an inter-dental brush or dental floss, receiving tooth brushing instruction in dental clinics, and receiving periodic examination one or more times annually.
The study results suggested promotion of the modification of oral health behavior by enforcement of the new program.

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Since the national statistics on routine dental visits are insufficient in Japan, we conducted a web-based survey. The subjects were thirty thousand men and women (aged 20s-60s) who were monitors of a research company. They answered a web-based questionnaire about routine dental visits, and the time and type of treatment at their last dental visit. In addition to these data, we used variables of sex, age, area and job.
The rate of routine dental visits during one year was 35.7% (male 31.5%, female 39.9%). The rate of dental visits during one year was 50.3% (male 43.9%, female 54.7%). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the rate of routine dental visits was significantly associated with the age group, job, area and type of treatment at the last dental visit. A higher rate of routine dental visits was observed in the older age group and in women. Concerning area, male and female subjects in the Tohoku area showed a lower rate of routine dental visits. Female subjects in Hokkaido, Shikoku and Kyushu areas showed the same tendency. Concerning the type of treatment at the last dental visit, those having treatment for periodontal disease and tooth arrangement showed a higher rate of routine dental visits; however, those having treatment for dental caries and missing teeth showed a lower value. Concerning the job, self-employed, part-time workers and students showed a lower rate of routine dental visits in men. Stratified multiple logistic regression analysis by age group showed a clear difference in the rate of routine dental visits in men and younger age groups.
Although the results of our survey were not representative of Japan, we consider that these results were valuable as descriptive epidemiological findings which indicated the current status of routine dental visits in Japan.

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The aim of this study was to discover how junior high school students think about their own health and their behavior modification by an oral hygiene training program in order to improve dental health education methods. The subjects were junior high school students in Hiroshima. They were asked to complete a questionnaire after a dental health education program for residents. The following results were obtained:
1. When the junior high school students considered that they should maintain good health by them-selves, after the dental health education program they began to brush their teeth better.
2. The contents of the dental health education program made little impression on students who were interested in current fashions.
Therefore, it was suggested that adolescents in their age bracket might need not only education on particular diseases but also education on autonomous actions for their good general health. If instructors could make them consider teeth-cleaning to be fashionable, students following the current fashions also might take some interest in teeth-cleaning.

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