This comprehensive critical review, carried out in a descriptive-discursive style, presents the oral health surveillance policy currently in force in Brazil. Based on an appraisal of the national and international literature on the subject of health surveillance, it examines the formulation of a scientifi c and political agenda for oral health surveillance, which is anchored in the institutions of the Brazilian Public Health System. The accomplishment of this agenda is exemplifi ed by the presentation of the most recent Brazilian Oral Health survey (SBBrasil 2010). A conclusive summary is presented on the search for a theoretical and methodological convergence of both the identifi cation of the obstacles and weaknesses still detectable in this policy, and the recognition of its virtues already confi rmed by important advances and achievements.