It has been elucidated that oral functional management prevents general complications during the peri-operative period. Since fiscal 2012, peri-operative oral functional management (POOM) has been covered by federal health insurance. In the current study, we investigated retrospectively the oral environment of patients under POOM and its intervention effect on peri-operative complications. The subjects were 196 patients undergoing POOM at our hospital in 2012. We reviewed our database of the patients under POOM. We picked up the underlying primary disease and the style of oral management on those patients, and analyzed statistically whether these factors differed among the primary disease. We also examined whether the incidence of post-operative pneumonia was different between patients under POOM and those without it. For dental treatment, while periodontal treatment was performed in many patients of all the type of underlying disease, tooth extraction and denture repair were more common for patients with head and neck cancer or cardiovascular disease. The incidence of post-operative pneumonia was lower in the POOM group (5.7%) than the non-POOM group (7.8%, p＝0.04). These findings suggested that dental care support is essential for patients in POOM, and showed that, according to their type of disease, patients have specific oral problems and appropriate dental treatments. Furthermore, the results suggest that POOM would be effective to prevent post-operative complications.

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Recent studies have suggested that optimum allocation of medical professionals in hospitals and nursing homes would lead to improvements the quality of health care or safety. However, little is known about the effects of dental professional staffing on medical outcomes in general hospitals. The present study investigated the allocation and working hours of medical and dental professional staff in inpatient wards. We conducted a self-administered survey on working hours and work practices with 274 medical and dental staff in four general hospitals and one nursing home in Hiroshima and Okayama Prefectures. We calculated the working time devoted to inpatient wards, and then further calculated the ratio of medical and dental professionals to 100 beds, which was defined as the staff-to-bed ratio. The results showed that the average staff-to-bed ratio was significantly lower with dentists or dental hygienists （0.6 and 0.3, respectively）compared to the other medical professionals （p＜0.05）. The working time devoted to inpatients was also significantly shorter for dental hygienists （2.4±2.3 h）. These findings suggest that allocation of dental professionals to inpatient wards would be insufficient. While scientific evidence about the relationships between oral conditions and systematic disease has substantially increased, further investigation would be necessary to establish the optimum allocation and working time of dental professionals for inpatient wards.

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