Method: Data were collected in seven Japanese dental schools from May to September 2013 via online questionnaire survey.
Result: 558 dental faculties (428 male, 130 female) participated with response rate of 57%. The average number of year after they completed a universities degree was 20.2 ± 10.2 years. The majority of participants indicated that oral health care should be provided either at nursing homes (99%); or residential homes (95%); or recovery phase wards (91%); or at hospices (90%). The majority indicated that it should be implemented as a type of home dental care (94%); as a part of overall preventive care (92%); or as a part of overall rehabilitation (91%). Most of them (84%) indicated that oral health care education should be integrated in one course.
Conclusion: Findings indicated that most faculties recognized that oral health care should be provided to older adults and, the majority suggested oral health care education should be integrated as a course. However there remains a need to define what the content of this course should be. And to design new oral health care courses, we need to coordinate some departments such as geriatric dentistry, preventive dentistry, and prosthodontic dentistry which at the moment are all teaching elements of dental health care independently.