Dentistry in Brazil: Its History and Current Trends

Abstract

The objectives of this article are to provide a short history of dentistry and dental education in Brazil and to analyze the nature of its development to date. The databases consulted are those provided by the Brazilian Federal Council of Dentistry, Brazilian Ministry of Health, Brazilian Ministry of Education, National Institute of Studies and Educational Research Anísio Teixeira, and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Formal dental education in Brazil started in the late nineteenth century with the creation of courses annexed to existing schools of medicine in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia. Today, there are 191 institutions of higher education nationwide granting degrees in dentistry (137 private [71.7 percent] and ifty-four public [28.3 percent]), with a total of 17,157 student positions offered annually. These schools graduate around 10,000 professionals per year-one of the highest rates in the world. Both the distribution of schools of dentistry and of dentists varies among the regions of the country, with the greatest concentrations in major metropolitan centers with high population density, resulting in limited coverage in the more deprived regions. A review of epidemiological data for oral health and distribution of dentists in Brazil indicates that there is a lack of systematic planning for the allocation of the dental workforce and a lack of consideration of regional needs in the development of dental training programs in Brazil today.

Exploratory scoping of the literature on factors that influence oral health workforce planning and management in developing countries

“…Authors reported a number of important consequences arising from the lack of national policy and regulation regarding oral health workforce management including insufficiently skilled or excessively trained personnel, maldistribution of services, unmet oral health needs and unequal access and use of resources . Data about the distribution of dentists are incomplete, and the lack of registration data of dentists and/or other health practitioners is frequently cited . Most articles reported dentist–population ratios; the dentist‐to‐population ratio was commonly used to highlight either the need for more oral health practitioners or to address (assumed) oversupply.…”

“…Situational analyses from different countries reported an ‘explosive growth’ in the number of dental colleges, mainly in urban areas and an increased privatization of dental colleges . The authors expressed concern that this rapid expansion and lack of government oversight could lead to compromises in the quality of the dental education.…”

“…There is considerable evidence that merely increasing numbers of dentists does not improve the oral health status of the population . Geographic access or the opportunity to use a health service does not necessarily equate to actual use of the service.…”

“…The direct transfer of oral health policies and dental curricula from the ‘developed’ world is not necessarily successful because the economic situation, oral health needs and community requirements of the developing country are often insufficiently considered. Traditionally, dental education, clinical dental practice and oral health policies have been dominated by a biomedical perspective of health despite evidence that dental treatment alone has little effect on population oral health . Although it is commonly accepted that oral health promotion is more important than the temporary relief of oral discomfort, the sector appears to suffer still, from lack of a prevention‐oriented approach.…”

Dental care providers' decision making regarding maintenance of compromised teeth and implant therapy indication: an analysis of gender and enrollment in teaching positions

“…Through the historic development of dentistry in Brazil, it is possible to understand that the demand for specialized professionals is increasing due to the huge amount of dentists graduating each year – 10.000 in 2008 (Saliba et al. ). This has been supposedly regulated by the professional market.…”