A lthough a reduction has been observed in the prevalence of dental caries among Brazilian children in the last 30 years, the prevalence among Brazilian adults and elderly people remains high.1 Dental caries is still responsible for significantly impacting the quality of life of many Brazilians. This situation implies that preventive and restorative therapy for caries will continue to be important issues for Brazilian dentists in the coming years.The profile of practicing dentists has been described as traditional, positivist or surgical-operative, with a striking trend towards mechanism, biologism, individualism, specialization and exclusion of alternative practices, with a strong emphasis on dental procedure techniques.
2The traditional set of dentistry skills, characterized by a focus on technical, clinical and biological aspects, needs to be changed and expanded by adding new skills capable of sustaining actions focused on promoting health and based on the comprehensiveness of health care. The training of future dentists needs to consider improving diagnostic skills, and treating and preventing carious lesions, while taking into account the complexity of the microbiological and biological environment, without neglecting the critical socioeconomic influence on oral health.Dentists graduating in this century must be aware of a variety of caries management strategies based on scientific evidence, which have been developed in the last years. Bearing in mind that Brazil has over 200 dental schools, a well-structured dental education system should deliver a high-quality and consistent education in cariology.In 2010 the European Organization for Caries Research (ORCA) and the Association of Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) developed a European core curriculum in cariology for undergraduate dental students covering a wide range of important aspects of cariology.3 This document was based on the results of an ORCA/ADEE questionnaire on education in cariology, mailed to dental schools.In Brazil, the ORCA/ADEE questionnaire was translated into Portuguese in 2011, and was used in conducting a survey. The questionnaire comprised 12 questions on how and when cariology has been taught in the country, and was sent to 203 Brazilian dental schools. The dean of each school was asked to forward the questionnaire to the main professor responsible for teacing cariology at the school.A preliminary sample of 73 schools answered and returned the questionnaire. Most of the schools (63%) stated that they had a specific cariology curriculum, taught mainly in three curricular units: Operative Dentistry (35%), Preventive Dentistry (34%) and Pediatric Dentistry (22%).