Abstract
This essay focuses on the pioneer activities of public health dentistry in Brazil and its evolution in the 20th century with emphasis on the emergency of a landmark, the sanitary dentistry. Social and preventive dentistry and market dentistry, with reference to the main theoretical works representative of these trends, are presented. The essential characteristics of collective oral health (Brazilian variant of public health dentistry) and buccality are presented. The relationship between collective oral health and collective health as well as the implications of the buccality concept for the development of public health dentistry actions and new guidance of clinical practice in public services of the Brazilian Health System (SUS) are discussed. The key elements of an agenda for collective oral health based on proposals presented at the 3rd National Conference on Oral Health are addressed.
Highlights
The publication of “Manual de odontologia sanitária” (The manual of sanitary dentistry)[5] in 1960 by Mário Chaves has deeply marked the theory and practice of public health interventions in dentistry in Brazil, influenced several generations and extended its outreach to the whole Latin America
Public dental care services began to be provided to the State Police Force and to those people in custody of state authorities under the State Justice and Security Department
Vasconcellos underlines that, when São Paulo State Health Department was created in 1947, the recommendation was that all health centers should have “oral-dental care services” available
Summary
The publication of “Manual de odontologia sanitária” (The manual of sanitary dentistry)[5] in 1960 by Mário Chaves has deeply marked the theory and practice of public health interventions in dentistry in Brazil, influenced several generations and extended its outreach to the whole Latin America. Patients were approached on an individual basis and no population-based diagnoses were made, and nor even was applied any programming technology derived from planning processes that included oral health of the population as a whole.[14] This scenario changed dramatically when, in 1952, there were implemented by the Serviço Especial de Saúde Pública (SESP - Special Public Health Service) the first sanitary dentistry programs, first in the city of Aimorés, state of Minas Gerais, in several municipalities of the Northern, Northeastern, and Southern regions of Brazil.[14] These programs mainly targeted schoolchildren since they were regarded as epidemiologically more vulnerable and, at the same time, most sensitive to public health interventions. The present study focuses on the pioneer activities of public health dentistry in Brazil and their evolution in the 20th century with emphasis to the emergency of a landmark, sanitary dentistry
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