8020 Promotion Foundation
- Outline of its objectives and Operations -

Objectives

The 8020 Promotion Foundation is now actively promoting not only the dental health care but the healthy life care of elderly in the Japanese society. The Foundation is making a great effort to spread the 8020 Campaign all over Japan to encourage Japanese people to keep 20 or more of their own teeth even until the age of 80. For that reason, it becomes necessary to implement and operate research projects and studies for the 8020 Campaign including training programs and activities for outstanding research projects and promotional campaigns. After collecting all the data of related research and studies, a close evaluation of the data should be conducted to provide Japanese people with the accurate information.

Recognition of the 8020 Campaign

As the Japan Dental Association has proposed and the Minister of Health and Welfare has approved, the 8020 Promotion Foundation was established on December 1, 2000, with the collaboration of various social organizations and business corporations.
After the Foundation set the goal to support the elderly to improve and maintain their healthy life, the 8020 Campaign was set out to help people to keep 20 or more of their own teeth until the age of 80.
As you recognized, Japan has become a “super ageing society” unlikely seen in any other countries of the world.
Needless to say, in such a society, there are many elderly facing the difficulty to maintain their health including their dental health. The dental profession has emphasized that the 8020 Campaign could be one of the most effective propositions to achieve this goal, and they have also been trying to prove the effectiveness of the Campaign.
The Foundation feels that now is the time to take action to start the 8020 Campaign and to spread it nationwide.
Although many authorities are undoubtedly participating in this Campaign, we are still aware that as a prior step, the Campaign requires more commitment of dental professions. If we could achieve this goal, we strongly believe that the success of this Campaign might lead to a golden opportunity for the dental professions to demonstrate a new way of health maintenance of the 21st century of Japan.
We sincerely hope that you would understand and support this Campaign and that as many people as possible could take part in the Campaign.

Establishment

As previously stated, the 8020 Promotion Foundation was established on December 1, 2000 with a contribution of the endowment of the Japan Dental Association, the Japan Dental Commerce, and the Industry Association, Sunstar Inc., Matsushita Electric Works Ltd., and Lotte Co., Ltd. The Foundation is now operated in cooperation with the Japan Dental Association, the Japan Society of Dental Science, and many other social organizations(including Dental Association of local government ) and business corporations(including Lion Co., Ltd. and MetLife Inc.)

1Promotion of the 8020 Campaign

As we are living in the 21st century, we have realized that people could enjoy a long and active life better in a healthy environment. The 8020 Campaign proposed by the Japan Dental Association and approved by the Ministry of Health and Welfare gives us a clear and effective vision of the dental health care if we could maintain more than 20 of our own teeth by the age of 80; if we could keep more than 20 of our own teeth until the age of 80 we might be able to have not only healthy teeth but also a healthy and comfortable life.
We also need to precisely evaluate the results of the 8020 Campaign since there is a clear numerical goal set for the Campaign in order to prepare for the future plan. If we continue the Campaign to improve the dental health care of Japanese people, in other words, if we take good care of our teeth and eat with our own teeth throughout our lives, we are more likely to have a healthy life when we become older. In that sense, the 8020 Campaign may play an important role in a society full of the active elderly of Japan.
Overall, we’d like again to emphasize the importance of the 8020 Campaign, advocate propagating the Campaign throughout the country, and should take it into consideration as a health policy act.In 2011,as a contribution of our activities lead to the　approving new act for Advancement of Dental and Oral Health.
http://www.jda.or.jp/en/Act_concerning_the_Promotion_of_Dental_and_Oral_Health.pdf

National survey of dental disease for 2011 showed the 40% or over at the age group of 75 to 84. And proportion of persons having 20 teeth and average present teeth of adult age group are increasing since the survey of 1993.

2Promotion and support of research projects

Some reports say that the people who follow the 8020 rules become less ill than the people who don’t and the healthy people are naturally having a more active life.
The fact is, however, that a lot of the elderly are not familiar with the 8020 Campaign as most of them lose their teeth earlier, and consequently, they have no choice but to live an unhealthy life. Therefore, we shouldn’t wait to propagate the Campaign and also should take an action to support the elderly who have difficulties to eat and to have oral health care since they may have dysphagia or may be bedridden or hospitalized, or in a nursing home. We should put the stress on the importance of oral health care in order for them to have a healthy life.
One study shows that oral health care for the bedridden elderly could prevent the aspiration pneumonia. This special project was conducted in 1998 by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to study about the aspiration pneumonia. This study also indicates the importance of oral health care not just for the bedridden or hospitalized elderly but also for the healthy people; we could maintain the present health condition if we regularly have oral health care.
Furthermore, we need to conduct some more research on oral health care to support the evidence so that we can effectively promote and propagate the importance of continuous oral health care throughout the life. The 8020 Campaign could be the key issue for achieving the goal of having at least 20 teeth by the age of 80.

3Relative assessment of the 8020 Campaign at home and overseas

Japan is the first country to start proposing the 8020 Campaign worldwide but many countries are now also becoming interested in the Campaign since they are also facing the same health problems of the elderly and are trying to look for a solution.
Since Japan is also considering a leading country to conduct quite a few researches on the 8020 Campaign as well as on oral and systemic health care it means a lot for us to establish the organization in Japan in order to collect and evaluate the information of the significant researches.
Therefore, we strongly believe that the organization could contribute greatly to the health care of the elderly, which some other countries are about to face.

4National Campaign of a new cultural life

Needless to say, food intake is essential to sustain our life, but we are gradually losing the instinct of mastication of raw materials since human animals found the way to cook to make soft food, so we don’t have to chew as much. Furthermore, despite the fact that we have been focusing on the improvement of medical technology and lifespan we neglected the oral health care. In other words, the life expectancy of the elderly is a lot longer than the life of natural teeth, consequently, they are facing a rather unbalanced phenomena of physical and oral health.
Under the circumstance, the promotion of the 8020 development may be the potential key to increase the power of life and to rebuild the welfare system of health since the Campaign is directly related to the mastication to sustain our life.
If the statement is correct, we should start to take action to achieve the 8020 goal since this Campaign could directly affect our daily life. I not only wish for the dental professionals to take action but also for every individual to be aware of the importance of the 8020 goal and set forth to accomplish a healthy life.
Taking action to achieve the 8020 goal means that everybody should participate in the Campaign and put the new value on the elderly society as a part of cultural life.

Link

World Congress 2015(March 13 to 15 ,Tokyo)

Act Concerning the Promotion of Dental and Oral Health(Website of Japanease Dental Association)

A Basic Direction for Comprehensive Implementation of National Health Promotion(Health Japan 21 (the Second Term,from 2013fiscal year to 2022fiscal year))

Changes in the percentage of people aged 45 and over with 20 teeth since 1993