Drug Discov Ther. 2022;16(6):309-312. (DOI: 10.5582/ddt.2022.01091)

Most dentists approve of oral health check-ups for local residents at community pharmacies and desire collaboration with community pharmacists

Iwata H, Nakamura K, Kobayashi N, Fujimoto K, Hayashi N, Yamaura K


SUMMARY

Community pharmacies are required to play a role in maintaining the health of local residents. Since September 2015, a national policy in Japan has allowed saliva tests to be used for oral health checkups at community pharmacies. In the present study, we aimed to reveal dentists' perceptions and expectations for oral health check-ups provided at community pharmacies. A questionnaire survey was administered to dentists at 1,000 randomly selected dental clinics in Tokyo, Japan; 257 responses (25.7%) were included in the analysis and 85.2% of respondents approved of oral health checkups at community pharmacies. Most respondents who approved of oral health check-ups expected that community pharmacists would recommend that local residents visit a dental clinic (85.8%) and provide a report to dentists (60.3%) after the check-up. Furthermore, 79.0% of respondents desired collaboration with community pharmacies. These findings suggested the potential for oral health check-ups to facilitate collaboration between community pharmacies and dental clinics aimed at maintaining and improving oral health of local residents.


KEYWORDS: health support, oral disease, oral health promotion, questionnaire survey

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