Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the procedures of primary dental health care performed by oral health teams (OHTs) adhering to the second cycle of the ‘National Programme for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care’ (PMAQ-AB) in Brazil. A cross-sectional descriptive analysis was performed, across 23 dental procedures comprising preventive, restorative/prosthetic, surgical, endodontic and oral cancer monitoring. Descriptive analysis shows that most of the oral health teams carry out basic dental procedures. However, most of the time, they do not keep adequate records of suspected cases of oral cancer, diagnosis tests or follow-ups, and do not perform dental prosthetic procedures. Data also showed disparities in the average number of procedures performed in each Brazilian geographical region in 2013–2014, ranging from 13.9 in the northern to 16.5 in the southern and south-eastern regions, reinforcing the great social disparities between them. Brazilian regions with the highest volume of dental need deliver the lowest number of dental procedures. The need to tackle inequalities and further shape the supply of appropriate primary health care (PHC) is evident.
Highlights
The inclusion of oral health teams (OHTs) in the Brazilian National Health System (SUS in Portuguese) and subsequent creation of the National Oral Health Policy, represented the enhancement of primary health care (PHC) and the expansion of dental health-care access to the Brazilian population [1,2,3].There are currently 24,053 OHTs throughout Brazil [4]
This is a cross-sectional descriptive study using secondary data related to the primary dental care procedures performed by oral health team (OHT) adherents to the second cycle of Programme for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care’ (PMAQ-AB)
We used data obtained in the external evaluation phase, which involves an interview with the dentists about the work process of the OHTs and verification of documents in the primary health care (PHC) units
Summary
The inclusion of oral health teams (OHTs) in the Brazilian National Health System (SUS in Portuguese) and subsequent creation of the National Oral Health Policy, represented the enhancement of primary health care (PHC) and the expansion of dental health-care access to the Brazilian population [1,2,3].There are currently 24,053 OHTs throughout Brazil [4]. There has been a structural improvement in the dental facilities in PHC units, better qualification of OHT professionals (each OHT is composed of one dentist and at least one dental assistant—an oral health auxiliary and/or oral health technician), the provision of dental prostheses in PHC and the expansion of secondary dental health care [3]. This great expansion of access brought with it the need to evaluate the quality of service provided to the population. Public Health 2017, 14, 1480; doi:10.3390/ijerph14121480 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International journal of environmental research and public health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
