Oral health in Brazil - Part II: Dental Specialty Centers (CEOs)

Abstract

The concepts of health promotion, self-care and community participation emerged during the 1970s and, since then, their application has grown rapidly in the developed world, showing evidence of effectiveness. In spite of this, a major part of the population in the developing countries still has no access to specialized dental care such as endodontic treatment, dental care for patients with special needs, minor oral surgery, periodontal treatment and oral diagnosis. This review focuses on a program of the Brazilian Federal Government named CEOs (Dental Specialty Centers), which is an attempt to solve the dental care deficit of a population that is suffering from oral diseases and whose oral health care needs have not been addressed by the regular programs offered by the SUS (Unified National Health System). Literature published from 2000 to the present day, using electronic searches by Medline, Scielo, Google and hand-searching was considered. The descriptors used were Brazil, Oral health, Health policy, Health programs, and Dental Specialty Centers. There are currently 640 CEOs in Brazil, distributed in 545 municipal districts, carrying out dental procedures with major complexity. Based on this data, it was possible to conclude that public actions on oral health must involve both preventive and curative procedures aiming to minimize the oral health distortions still prevailing in developing countries like Brazil.

Oral Cancer Screening in Elderly in Sao Paulo State, Brazil (2001 to 2009)

“…Therefore, the centres for medium complexity, which were only created in 2004 in Brazil, should be prepared every year for a growing demand from this kind of patients referred. The literature clearly shows that fast-track referrals for those suspected with cancer may diminish greatly the length of the diagnostic delay8, and that the Brazilian health system may have reached an important quality leap in their oral health system when the structured CEOs were made viable and established [22,23].…”

Late diagnosis of oral cancer: how to face it under the Family Health Strategy.

“…Public actions on oral health must involve both preventive and curative procedures aiming to minimize the oral health distortions still prevailing in developing countries, such as in Brazil. 22 These actions, aside from being exclusive of the Brazilian program Family Health Strategy, are in line with the guidelines of the World Health Organization 23 and can be replicated in other contexts. The suggested instruments in this article may improve oral cancer management, reducing the diagnostic delay of the disease.…”

The challenge of the approach to oral cancer in primary health care

“…For this, a discussion regarding changing the care model and training consistent with this new model and new patterns of work sponsored by the Health Strategy are crucial 42 . Despite the significant increase in the number of Oral Health Teams (ESB), especially in relation to population coverage and increased access to dental services, it is still possible to identify great difficulty in modifying the currently existing health care model 43 .…”