Dear all, thank you for providing me this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Makoto Hirota. It is great honor for me to be appointed as a professor of department of oral and maxillofacial surgery, Kyoto university graduate school of medicine as of July 1st, 2024.

I was born and graduated from high school in kanagawa. I went on Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine immediately after taking DDS degree from Nihon University School of Dentistry at Matsudo in 1998. And, I studied oral mucosal diseases at department of pathology and took a Ph.D degree, while I also made great efforts on clinical practice.

After I was certified as a specialist of oral and maxillofacial surgery in 2005, I have been to study abroad to department of oral and maxillofacial surgery, Erlangen-Nerumberg University School of dentistry located in Bayern, southern Germany. I have learned clinical implant dentistry and bone augmentation procedures for jaw reconstruction under a professor who was a president of European Association of Osseointegration. After that, I started basic and clinical research of titanium material which is a basic material of dental implant in Japan.

In 2012, I have been to study abroad to Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology at University California, Los Angeles, School of Dentistry. The center’s goal was “Returning quality of life (QOL) for oral cancer and facial trauma survivors”, which inspired me to dedicate on implant research for patients with severe jaw bone deficiency. Dental implant therapy is based on osseointegration, which means connection between bone and titanium surface. This capability of titanium surface to the bone tissue is gradually reduced because of “titanium aging”, which is essentially impaired adhesion of osteoblasts on titanium surfaces. The impairment can be restored with UV-mediated “photofunctionalization on titanium” which was also proposed as well as titanium aging by Professor Takahiro Ogawa in UCLA. I joined his team to develop a clinical device of UV technology to titanium materials. Also, I obtained an opportunity to see clinical study for osteoradionecrosis, which is a delayed complication after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Osteoradionecrosis is an infection disease, which is refractory and easy to recurrent, with oral mucosal defect and jaw bone exposure. This disease needs surgical intervention, however, the treatment achieves spontaneous sequestration and mucosal closure with drugs regarding bone metabolism. I introduced these advanced treatments to Japan and achieved promising results.

I have been promoted as a director of oral and maxillofacial surgery/orthodontics at Yokohama City University Medical Center in 2019. As a director, in addition to treatment of dental implant and osteonecrosis, I performed surgeries of jaw and gum disease, particularly orthognathic surgery for jaw deformity under a concept of “serve as a last frontier of regional medicine”. But by a turn of fate, I will start new career at Kyoto University.

Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery has a lot of diseases. A tooth disease may cause a critical condition. A critical disease may be in your jaws. Our department will contribute to regional medical community by treating these diseases. And also, developing good dentist, oral and maxillofacial surgeons is our important role to contribute on regional oral health care around Kyoto. Regarding research work, we will advance international collaborating research of titanium with a high quality results. Moreover, we also study interactions between lifestyle and tooth disease or growth abnormality of jaw and will report these results, which must be a major concern on people’s daily life.

Recently, in addition to basic function such as occlusion and swallowing, a good tooth and oral condition is required to prevent from complications in chemotherapy and./or surgery under general anesthesia. Interprofessional relations and collaboration with patient’s family clinic are required to achieve this prevention. I will try to make a promising network to contribute on oral health of all patients who are treated in Kyoto University Hospital. I appreciate your continued support and help for my brand-new career. Looking forward to seeing with you all. Best regards.