Jennifer Mendoza
Research expert covering health, pharma and medtech
Dental medicine in Japan - statistics & facts
Dentistry in Japan became an independent field of medicine after the westernization period and subsequent reformation of the medical system in the Meiji Era (1868-1912). In the eras before Meiji, dental problems were primarily treated as part of oral medicine. The first clinic operating with a dentist license based on modern European dental medicine opened in Tokyo in 1874. After the establishment of the Medical Care Act and the Dental Practitioners Act in 1948, many universities integrated dentistry departments. The number of dentists and dental clinics further increased in the 1960s and 1970s. In the last decade, the number of dentists and treatment centers in Japan remained constant with about 68 thousand dental clinics - around 54 clinics per 100,000 inhabitants.
