2A Profession called "Dentist" 2

Continued from #1 A profession called “Dentist”  1

When I took over my father’s clinic, my first difficulty was to be accepted by the staff and patients. Amid unrelenting loneliness, responsibility and pressure, I threw myself into doing my utmost to understand the thoughts and actions of the staff, to learn, to talk with them often, and to complete my daily tasks. It goes without saying that the support of the staff and the understanding and kindness of our patients were an important source of strength for me every day.

Three years after I had taken over, the time eventually came for me to make some partial changes to suit my way of doing things, while keeping the excellent parts created by my father. I changed the systems and introduced implant surgery, but two months later…

On 11 March 2011, with rumbling and terrific shaking, the Great East Japan Earthquake hit. 

The tsunami destroyed the ground floor clinic, and then the great conflagration that came after the tsunami burnt down the whole town, including my house and the dental clinic. It is impossible to express in words how it felt to lose my normal everyday life, as well as people and things that meant a lot to me.  

Is there something I can do? What should I do…?

“As you rebuild your life, you should choose your own place and your own path. Don’t look back, and don’t look too far forward, but make sure you live in the present.” This was the advice of a dentist who was a great friend of my father’s.

In 2012, I chose to restart in Tokyo, where my sister was working. With my sister’s support, I restarted in a job as a dentist in the capital. Amid my many painful memories, I went through some hard times full of both physical and mental suffering.  But the time I spent in my work as a dentist was a comfort to me. I think that going through various tough experiences enables people to learn, to become stronger, and to come up with new ideas and questions.

At some point during my daily work, I started to have various doubts. These were also naturally connected with my frustration at having to start again as an employed dentist.

One of my doubts, and something that surprised me, was that the rules for insurance coverage of dental treatment in Tokyo constrained us much more strictly than they did in Iwate, and this really caused difficulties for us dentists and our patients. In reality, we couldn’t do the examinations and diagnostic work that were needed to solve our patients’ problems… We couldn’t give our patients the right treatments, and even treatments we did that were the right ones had to be excluded from coverage, under the insurance points system…Medical insurance is a wonderful thing, but the fact is that at the moment, under the current rules for insured dental treatments, it is difficult for us to do the most suitable examinations and treatments.

That being the case,  I came to the conclusion that there was a need for a place separate from the dental insurance system, a place where I could seriously engage myself in comprehensive dental care, a place where I could offer the necessary examinations and technology, a place where I could offer treatments suited to patients, and a place where my patients could learn about the correct treatments. But I had to do this while keeping down treatment costs for patients.

Of course, it is not straightforward to make a success of running your own practice, particularly if you choose to start one in Tokyo, so people told me I was a dreamer.  

But I wanted to do what I thought was right. 

So in May 2019 I opened the Toranomon Dental Practice.

I opened it with a desire to heal my patients by tackling dental treatment seriously, with the thoughts, attitude and technical abilities that should be the starting point for any medical professional.

People who are seriously worried, people who have been wanting to change for a long time, people looking for treatment that suits them – those are the people I would like to find this place.

I wish this from my heart.

I have opened a different type or practice in a different place…

But my choice to do this connects me with the future direction of dentistry,  and this clinic links me anew to my patients and to my father.