A Chiba Dentist’s Reflection on Sleep – Feeling Fine Isn’t Always Performing Well
⸻
Blog Post
Hello, I’m Dr. Mikio Harada, director of Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba.
Today, I’d like to talk about the importance of sleep—not just for health, but also for daily performance and safety. This might seem like an unusual topic coming from a dentist, but it’s something that has personally impacted me and that I believe is relevant to many people, regardless of age.
Recently, I came across a YouTube video by a highly driven individual who shared a fascinating story about how sleep affected his performance. He used to live a very busy life and often got by on very little sleep. One day, after what he considered a decent 6 hours of sleep, he went to the gym. He felt great—no fatigue, no lack of motivation—but when he tried to lift his usual barbell, he simply couldn’t do it.
He was shocked. After all, 6 hours wasn’t a particularly short night for him. He had no signs of tiredness. But his body clearly wasn’t performing at its usual level. A few days later, after getting 8 full hours of sleep, he tried again—and this time, he lifted the barbell with ease. That’s when he realized: how you feel and how your body actually functions can be very different.
This story resonated deeply with me. About 10 or 15 years ago, I myself would sometimes work with only 3 hours of sleep a night, once a week. There were even rare occasions when I slept only 15 minutes in a 24-hour period. At the time, I didn’t feel particularly tired, and I didn’t fall ill. In fact, I’ve been fortunate to avoid any major health problems over the past 10, 20, even 30 years.
But now that I reflect on those days, I wonder: was I truly functioning at my best? Is it possible I made small mistakes—mistakes I didn’t notice, and no one else did either? Especially in the medical field, where accuracy and concentration are critical, even minor errors can have serious consequences. That realization has stayed with me.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to value sleep more. No matter how busy I am, I now try to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. And I can honestly say I feel more stable, more focused, and more capable than when I was pushing through on just a few hours.
In Japan, it’s often said that we sleep less than people in many other countries. Being busy is sometimes worn as a badge of honor. But no matter how strong our willpower may be, our bodies and brains still need time to recover. Sleep is not a luxury—it’s a foundation for physical health, mental clarity, and emotional balance.
So if you’re someone who feels “fine” but notices little dips in focus, energy, or strength, try adjusting your sleep habits. You may be surprised by how much better you can function—not just in work, but in daily life too.
As a dentist in Chiba, I care deeply about oral health—but also about overall well-being. I hope this message encourages you to take good care of your whole self, starting with a good night’s rest.
Are Chiba dentists introducing automatic reception to reduce staff?
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
On Friday, October 4th, the temperature exceeded 30 degrees, and I was surprised at what was going to happen, but it finally feels like autumn.
The clinic is currently being renovated, and construction is progressing every day with the aim of reopening in August 2025.
In fact, we are planning to install automatic reception.
Returning patients check in by holding their smartphone app over the machine, and the payment after treatment is also settled by credit card on their own smartphone app.
When I mentioned this to an American teacher in an English conversation lesson the other day, he asked me if the purpose was to reduce staff. I thought that it was a typical American perspective that focuses on money.
Recently, family restaurants such as Gusto and Saizeriya have been implementing automatic payment.
When paying, instead of a staff member, you hold a barcode over the machine and select your payment method from credit card, cash, QR payment, SUICA, etc.
At Gusto, orders are placed through a touch panel, the food is served by a robot, and customers place the food brought by the robot on their table themselves.
Ordering through a touch panel has become the norm even at conveyor-belt sushi restaurants.
I imagine restaurants are also struggling with a labor shortage.
The restaurant itself is busy with families and groups.
However, he lamented that Choshimaru near Chiba Station is different and more like a library.
Most of the customers are on business, or come alone.
They order on the touch panel in front of them, and when the food arrives, they eat in silence, pay, and leave.
Not a word is spoken during this time.
His ideal restaurant might be a typical American restaurant, where a waiter comes to take the order, asks about the food, and when the food arrives, the customer chats with his companions, sometimes with the customer at the next table, and jokes with the waiter when paying.
I’ve made a long introduction, but the reason our clinic has automated reception is not to reduce staff.
The purpose is to reduce the waiting time at reception and the waiting time after treatment to pay.
The idea is to have machines do things that don’t need to be handled by humans.
We use that freed time to explain things to patients and follow up with them.
Reception staff will assist first-time patients.
We use a variety of digital systems for treatment and regular management.
A digital scanner is used to take impressions for mouthpiece orthodontics,
and the Swiss company EMS’ Airflow, which cleans the inside of the mouth, is operated with a cordless foot pedal using Bluetooth, so there is less unnecessary wiring.
The reservation system is linked to electronic medical records, X-ray images, and intraoral photographs.
However, it is humans who perform the treatment and surgery, and it is humans, not robots, who explain things until the patient is satisfied.
This will never be replaced by robots.
In conclusion, we will introduce an automatic reception desk and increase the number of staff.
This will have benefits for both patients and employees.
The benefit for patients is that, as mentioned earlier, waiting times will be shortened.
In fact, on the day I am writing this, eight staff members are on paid leave, and one left early before noon due to a sudden illness in his child. Even so, the number of patients exceeds 120, and the clinic is operating normally.
This is something that would not be possible in a clinic with only 10 staff members.
A big benefit for working people is that you can take paid leave almost as often as you request, and even if you have to take time off suddenly for some reason you don’t have to cause any more trouble to other staff than necessary.
To get more specific, there’s also a rule that says you don’t have to buy souvenirs for staff if you use paid leave to go on a trip.
In fact, many staff members say that the thought of buying souvenirs for 40 people irritates them.
However, at our clinic, such consideration is absolutely unnecessary.
Our stance is that you should enjoy your own time on time off, and that there is no need to be overly considerate of others, so the office doesn’t end up overflowing with souvenirs from local areas.
Some staff members even avoid sugar, wheat, and vegetable oils.
This is how we enjoy providing medical care every day.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Les dentistes de Chiba introduisent-ils une réception automatique pour réduire le personnel ?
Bonjour
Je suis Harada de la clinique dentaire Harada de la ville de Chiba.
Le vendredi 4 octobre, la température a dépassé les 30 degrés et j’ai été surpris de ce qui allait se passer, mais on a enfin l’impression que c’est l’automne.
La clinique est actuellement en cours de rénovation et les travaux progressent chaque jour dans le but de rouvrir en août 2025.
En fait, nous prévoyons d’installer une réception automatique.
Les patients qui reviennent s’enregistrent en tenant leur application pour smartphone au-dessus de la machine, et le paiement après le traitement est également réglé par carte de crédit sur leur propre application pour smartphone.
Lorsque j’en ai parlé à un professeur américain lors d’un cours de conversation en anglais l’autre jour, il m’a demandé si le but était de réduire le personnel. J’ai pensé que c’était une perspective américaine typique qui se concentre sur l’argent.
Récemment, des restaurants familiaux tels que Gusto et Saizeriya ont mis en place le paiement automatique.
Au moment de payer, au lieu d’un membre du personnel, vous tenez un code-barres au-dessus de la machine et sélectionnez votre mode de paiement parmi carte de crédit, espèces, paiement par QR code, SUICA, etc.
Chez Gusto, les commandes sont passées via un écran tactile, la nourriture est servie par un robot et les clients placent eux-mêmes la nourriture apportée par le robot sur leur table.
La commande via un écran tactile est devenue la norme, même dans les restaurants de sushis à tapis roulant.
J’imagine que les restaurants sont également aux prises avec une pénurie de main-d’œuvre.
Le restaurant lui-même est très fréquenté par les familles et les groupes.
Cependant, il a déploré que Choshimaru, près de la gare de Chiba, soit différent et ressemble davantage à une bibliothèque.
La plupart des clients sont en déplacement professionnel ou viennent seuls.
Ils commandent sur l’écran tactile devant eux et lorsque la nourriture arrive, ils mangent en silence, paient et partent.
Pas un mot n’est prononcé pendant ce temps.
Son restaurant idéal pourrait être un restaurant américain typique, où un serveur vient prendre la commande, pose des questions sur la nourriture et lorsque la nourriture arrive, le client discute avec ses compagnons, parfois avec le client de la table voisine, et plaisante avec le serveur au moment de payer.
J’ai fait une longue présentation, mais la raison pour laquelle notre clinique a automatisé la réception n’est pas de réduire le personnel.
Le but est de réduire le temps d’attente à la réception et le temps d’attente après le traitement pour payer.
L’idée est de faire en sorte que les machines fassent des choses qui n’ont pas besoin d’être effectuées par des humains.
Nous utilisons ce temps libéré pour expliquer les choses aux patients et assurer le suivi avec eux.
Le personnel de la réception aidera les nouveaux patients.
Nous utilisons différents systèmes numériques pour le traitement et la gestion courante.
Un scanner numérique est utilisé pour prendre les empreintes pour l’orthodontie buccale,
et le Airflow de la société suisse EMS, qui nettoie l’intérieur de la bouche, fonctionne avec une pédale sans fil via Bluetooth, ce qui réduit les câbles inutiles.
Le système de réservation est lié aux dossiers médicaux électroniques, aux images radiographiques et aux photographies intrabuccales.
Cependant, ce sont des humains qui effectuent le traitement et l’opération, et ce sont des humains, et non des robots, qui expliquent les choses jusqu’à ce que le patient soit satisfait.
Ce système ne sera jamais remplacé par des robots.
En conclusion, nous allons mettre en place un bureau d’accueil automatique et augmenter le nombre de personnel.
Cela aura des avantages pour les patients et les employés.
L’avantage pour les patients est que, comme mentionné précédemment, les temps d’attente seront réduits.
En fait, le jour où j’écris ces lignes, huit membres du personnel sont en congé payé et un est parti tôt avant midi en raison d’une maladie soudaine de son enfant. Malgré cela, le nombre de patients dépasse 120 et la clinique fonctionne normalement.
Ce serait impossible dans une clinique avec seulement 10 employés.
Un grand avantage pour les travailleurs est que vous pouvez prendre des congés payés presque aussi souvent que vous le souhaitez, et même si vous devez prendre un congé soudainement pour une raison quelconque, vous n’avez pas à causer plus de problèmes aux autres employés que nécessaire.
Pour être plus précis, il existe également une règle qui stipule que vous n’êtes pas obligé d’acheter des souvenirs pour le personnel si vous utilisez vos congés payés pour partir en voyage.
En fait, de nombreux membres du personnel disent que l’idée d’acheter des souvenirs pour 40 personnes les irrite.
Cependant, dans notre clinique, une telle considération est absolument inutile.
Nous pensons que vous devez profiter de votre temps libre et qu’il n’est pas nécessaire d’être trop prévenant envers les autres, afin que le bureau ne finisse pas par déborder de souvenirs des environs.
Certains membres du personnel évitent même le sucre, le blé et les huiles végétales.
C’est ainsi que nous aimons prodiguer des soins médicaux au quotidien.
The story of pressing the emergency button in the toilet of a dentist in Chiba
Hello
This is Harada from Harada Dental Clinic in Chiba City.
It’s March. It’s getting warmer little by little.
The staff is preparing for the end of the fiscal year and for the training of new staff who will join from April.
Have you ever been to a communist country?
Is China a communist country that is close and relatively easy to get to?
There are far fewer communist countries now, but before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, there were many communist countries in Europe.
I have been to the Soviet Union and East Germany during the communist era.
At that time, Germany was divided into East and West, and different currencies were used.
The capital of West Germany is Bonn, and the capital of East Germany is Berlin.
And Berlin itself was divided into East Berlin and West Berlin.
Germany is famous for its beer, but the beer I drank in East Berlin was, at best, simple, or in other words, it was like water.
And one thing I still remember clearly is the disco that was in front of a certain station.
As it is a communist country, there are no private companies or shops; everything is state-owned.
In other words, this disco is also state-owned.
I didn’t go inside, but I saw it from the outside and immediately felt it.
In a country where there is no freedom in anything, not to mention criticizing the government, this discotheque, with its refreshing appearance, was created to encourage young people to let off steam and say, “You guys can dance here.”
I realized that I really don’t like communism.
I was surprised when I boarded the train to West Berlin after a day of sightseeing in East Berlin.
A number of soldiers with machine guns were keeping watch in the attic of the East Berlin train station.
I was stunned because I saw a scene I had only seen in war movies. Of course you can’t point the camera at it.
Once the train leaves East Berlin, it runs through a buffer zone for a while.
This is a plain of empty dirt as far as the eye can see.
There are no trees or even grass growing.
There are watchtowers to watch over it.
In other words, I thought that anyone who tried to go from East Berlin to West Berlin was almost certain to be detected and sometimes shot.
When I arrived in West Berlin, freedom was as common as in other European cities.
It was full of energy.
At that time, there were many stories about how terrible bureaucracy was in communism.
One such incident occurred at a hotel in Poland.
A traveler accidentally pulled the emergency contact cord in the bathroom of the hotel he was staying in in Warsaw.
Since he doesn’t speak Polish, he expected the hotel staff to come right away, but they didn’t come until the next morning.
There were many stories like this that would be unthinkable in Japan or Western countries.
However, some of these vestiges remain even after these countries democratized.
When I went to a state-owned bank in the Czech Republic to exchange old banknotes for new banknotes, the first staff member who answered the call and the staff member who exchanged the banknotes were the exact opposite of hospitality, treating the customer as if they were the enemy. They glared at me and told me to leave as soon as I finished my business, reminding me of the evil customs officials when I entered the Soviet Union in the past.
Today I’m going to talk a little more about dental treatment.
Periodontal disease is said to affect about 80% of Japanese people.
In addition, the most common dental treatment in Japan is endodontic treatment, also known as root canal treatment.
Many people who need root treatment have cavity, which further progress to the pulp (so-called dental nerves), and bad bacteria spread around the roots, sometimes as large as soybeans.
Earlier, I said about 80% of the people have periodontal disease.
This means that people who need root treatment often also have periodontal disease.
So which should be done first, periodontal treatment or root canal treatment?
The answer is root canal treatment first.
In fact, some dentiststreat periodontal disease first. This is the wrong treatment procedure.
Of course, if the tooth that needs root canal treatment is not brushed at all and you have periodontal disease, it is easy to bleed from the gum when you put on the equipment necessary for root canal treatment, so tooth brushing instruction and minimum cleaning your teeth is necessary.
However, periodontal disease is extremely difficult to cure even if periodontal disease is treated while bad bacteria are spilling out from the roots.
