Development of dental education for medical students in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: During the Japanese colonial period, Taiwan had a medical school education system for cultivating physicians, but did not have a dental school education system for cultivating “real” dentists. In this investigation, we collected and analyzed the historical documents related to dental education to study the development of dental education for medical students in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study mainly analyzed the changes in the development of dental education for medical students in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period through the collection and sorting of relevant historical materials. RESULTS: During each stage of Taiwan's medical education system in the Japanese colonial period, the medical school offered compulsory dental courses for medical students, including theory and clinical practice of dentistry. Although there was no specific dental subject included in the graduation examination, evidence showed that the content of dentistry was covered by the subject of Surgery in the examination. Moreover, Taipei Imperial University established the Medical Faculty in 1936. Its curriculum increased the weight of dentistry and added the “Dentistry & Oral Surgery” as a graduation examination subject, indicating the importance of dental education for medical students in that period. CONCLUSION: In the Japanese colonial period, although there was no dental school for cultivating dentists in Taiwan, there was still dental education for medical students to let them understand the Dentistry and to enable them to become dental practitioners. This can be regarded as a workaround in the medical and healthcare policy.