In an unexpected turn of events, I got into dentistry. In high school, I didn’t really identify what I wanted to do in the future, and it was a teacher who suggested, “what about becoming a dentist?”. At that time, I had never thought that I would get involved in medicine, especially dentistry, so I didn’t really think about what my teacher had said, and became an electrical engineering major at a technology university, but a week later, I stopped going to the university. After that, my parents expected me to, so I started to look for a school where I could gain some professional qualification in Nagano. Then, I remembered what my teacher had said to me, and I re-entered school at the Matsumoto Dental University School of Dentistry.

After graduating from the School of Dentistry, I continued studying dentures at the Department of Prosthodontics and then started to work at a dental clinic in Tochigi. The reason I decided to work in Tochigi was that I wanted to go skiing. Whatever the reason, the clinic specialized in pediatric dentistry, and I think this was the start of my career as a pediatric dentist.

In 1996, I set up of a dental clinic in my hometown, Nagano, and many children visited my clinic. All of my patients were children and their mothers, so it became increasingly like a pediatric dental clinic. Dentists are not a people you willingly go to see. Adults too, but especially children. So I brought DVDs for children, set up a children's play facility, and prepared a nursery for mothers with small babies, to ease their worries. I tried to make the clinic a fun place for them. I also took barrier-free facility design into consideration.

I first started orthodontics at the request of patients. Then, I started to consider how to make orthodontics easier for children. I repeated clinical research and studies, and this led me to develop the NeO-Cap.System®.
Conventional orthodontics requires the application of the appliance all day, which doesn’t suit children as it is painful and conspicuous. Many people complained that it was difficult to smile naturally during the orthodontic treatment. I think this is very hard for children.
Prior to the development of the NeO-Cap.System®, I used to use mainly the bionator, which is a functional orthodontic appliance. Then I first learned about the Bimler appliance when I attended Dr. Barbara Bimler’s first lecture in Japan. From Germany, she is the daughter of Dr. Hans Peter Bimler. It was a breakthrough. However, despite this great technique, it took too long to complete the treatment. That was the issue. Then, I attended another lecture and learned about another European orthodontic appliance. The NeO-Cap.System® is the combination of the advantages of both appliances. It is removable and only needs to be applied at night. It dramatically improves tooth alignment, and also corrects underbite, or in other words, an asymmetric chin. Excepting surgery, only the NeO-Cap.System® can correct underbite. Some patients even told me that they are happy that it corrected not only their underbite but also the shape of their face.

By word-of-mouth, the NeO-Cap.System® is becoming a well-known appliance among dental clinic patients. But I would also like dentists all over the country to know about it as it is an appliance that is both patient-friendly and dentist-friendly. To do this, I will prepare detailed clinical examples to teach more people about its effects. I would also like to spread use of the appliance to dentists overseas in the future.
Our motto is, “a friendly clinic for both adults and children” and it hasn’t changed since its establishment.
Also, I want to be happy with my job to make my patients happy, as I believe that if I’m not happy, I cannot make my patients happy either. For this reason, I hope to continue being a friendly, happy dentist.