A inserção do cirurgião-dentista no Programa de Saúde da Família : mudanças e desafios

• Ano de defesa: 2008
• Autor(a) principal: Feitoza, Estela Altoé
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo; BR; Mestrado em Saúde Coletiva; Centro de Ciências da Saúde; UFES; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde Coletiva
• Palavras-chave em Português: Dentists; Family Health Program; Public health practice; Oral health; Odontólogos; Programa Saúde da Família; Prática de saúde pública; Família - Saúde e higiene; Família - Programas de saúde; Saúde bucal; Dentistas; Saúde Coletiva; 614
• Link de acesso: http://repositorio.ufes.br/handle/10/5407

Oral Health is a relatively new addition to the Family Health Program (Programa de Saude da Familia-PSF). Dentists, as newcomers, have to face the challenge of both acquiring an already established public health knowledge base and interacting with a multidisciplinary team. This study aims at investigating the changes dentists have to undergo in this process. A qualitative, exploratory research design was chosen and semi-structured interviews were carried with 14 PSF dentists working in the program. The Collective Subject Discourse analysis strategy was used, and the results showed that PSF represents a new market for dental surgeons. Fragmentation between the clinical actions and those which focused on health promotion was also pointed. Despite this problem, dentists show an increasing awareness towards health prevention, a closer bound with the communities they serve and a deeper integration with other PSF health professionals. To improve PSF oral health programs, PSF dentists suggest hiring more dental professionals, organizing access to all age groups, providing more specialized care and strengthening integration with Family Health workers to advance changes in Public Health. A revision in Dentistry School curricula, to allow for a stronger emphasis on social determinants of health, was also put forward. In conclusion, PSF seems to offer a rich environment for subjective changes in dental professionals, as the conflicting perspectives of their traditional curative dental practices and the socially oriented care perspective engender careful reflection and the repositioning of their social role.