ヒトの進化と歯科医学とその文化性

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Why were the teeth and oral cavity separated from other parts of the human body in the system of medical science? This question arose soon after I was admitted to my alma mater, Kyushu Dental College. By the Dentist Law and Physician Law enacted in 1906, the positions and functions of dentists and physicians came under legal regulation. I suppose that some of the individuals involved in dental care have doubts about the current system, which separates dentistry from medicine, while others accept it as natural. The fact is that people in medical school are not familiar with the contents and circumstances of dentistry, and vice versa. Probably, the general public is also unsure about what kind of discipline dentistry is. I fear that students who intend to pursue dentistry are not sure either. I can find no reason for the human teeth and oral organs, which are the subjects of dentistry or dental science, to be treated separately from the mind and various parts of the body, to which other divisions of medical science are targeted. There is also no difference in value between the oral organs and the other organs. I consider that dentistry is equal to the other divisions of medicine when they are viewed as sciences of the human body and mind. Dentistry is closely related not only to philosophy and science but also to a wide variety of fields including anthropology, biology, the evolution of dietary habits, medicine, the history of dental care, information, and culture. I have been affiliated with the department of oral surgery of a medical school for a large part of the 45 years after graduation from my alma mater. My duty there has been to approach the whole of dental science as one division of medicine through research, education, and clinical activities. The motto of my clinical activities has been to face human beings who suffer from oral disorders rather than to treat local disorders of the oral region including the teeth, oral cavity, and jaw bones. This principle is a philosophy of total care for human beings. This article is tended to be an introductory overview. I would like to divide it into a general discussion and a clinical discussion. The general discussion touches on philosophical aspects of clinical dentistry, i.e., (1) the evolution of mankind, (2) dental care and the application of science and technology, (3) science, philosophy, and culture, (4) the history of dental care in Japan, (5) dental medicine in Japan from the modern period to the contemporary period, (6) Descartes' mind-body dualism, which has been the basis of modern medicine as a science, and (7) the philosophy of teeth of Ekiken Kaibara (1630-1714), a Japanese physician and Confucian philosopher. The clinical discussion features temporomandibular arthrosis and pain in the dental field. I consider that dental science is an interdisciplinary field that contains many unexplored areas and is filled with new hopes, similarly to medical science.
九州歯科学会の論文
2005-03-25

ヒトの進化と歯科医学とその文化性

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