北海道大学病院口腔ケア連携センターにおける医科歯科連携の現状について

Medical‒dental collaboration

北海道歯学会

北海道歯学雑誌

The Hokkaido University Hospital is a core hospital for the Hokkaido Prefecture, as it is a single region governed as a municipality. We surveyed the medical‒dental collaboration in this hospital, which provides extensive oral medical care through its Oral Care Center. Although the number of referrals from medical institutions decreased due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the number remained high er than it was at its inception in 2016. Oral management during chemotherapy, oral investigations before and after administering bone-modifying agents, and oral care during the perioperative period were a few of the requests received at the oral care centre. However, there are few dental clinics in rural Hokkaido that collaborate with our hospital; moreover, the difficulty of dealing with their patients in terms of continuous oral management remains an issue. Although the number of collaborating dental clinics in these rural areas increased slightly, continued dental care for patients in these areas requires the cooperation of family dentists and cancer patients support dentists.