Oral Health and Welfare
Department of Oral Health and Welfare
The Department of Oral Heath and Welfare was established as a part of the Faculty of Dentistry in April 2004.
As the aging of the Japanese society advances rapidly, the need for nursing care is progressively increasing. However, many elderly who require long-term care and persons with disabilities are not provided with appropriate care and treatment, although they have some problems related to their oral health, eating and/or swallowing functions.
Therefore, the Department of Oral Health and Welfare aims to train specialists with a high-level knowledge of oral care, eating and swallowing functions who can comprehensively think and manage health care, medical care and welfare. Thus, we propose to develop the appropriate environment that enables elderly who require long-term care and persons with disabilities to benefit from comprehensive health care and social welfare services.
The Department of Oral Heath and Welfare is the first educational institution that trains dental hygienists through a 4-year curriculum and that provides graduates with the qualifications for the national board examinations for both the dental hygienist and certified social worker* licenses.
Certified social workers:
Certified social workers are approved as the national qualification of social welfare defined in the law of certified social workers and care workers as “those who provide counseling, advise, guide and other services with social work knowledge and skills for those who have difficulties in living their daily life due to their physical/mental disabilities or environmental reasons.
Department of Oral Health and Welfare Curriculum
The Education at the Department of Oral Heath and Welfare
The education is mainly instructed by the following divisions : the Division of Welfare, which mainly focuses on the disciplines of Social Welfare, and the Division of Oral Science for Health Promotion, which focuses on the disciplines of Dental Hygiene.
The education of the specialized subjects for the students in the 2nd and above years is designed to collaborate closely with other faculties of Niigata University, the Department of Dentistry, the Medical and Dental Hospital, etc. To attain a more integrated and comprehensive understanding of the subjects, this education is mainly carried out by student-centered learning in small groups and is based on clinical or practical scenarios.
Furthermore, through thorough practical training and field works, the department provides an appropriate environment for the students to acquire a comprehensive approach to team collaboration.