Public oral health through the perspective of a dentistry student: an experience analysis

This study aims to analyze the contribution of a Pedagogical Project of Public Oral Health in the development of Dentistry undergraduate students in the perspective of the Brazilian Unified Health System principles, the promotion of oral health and the family health care, through the student’s view using a social research with a qualitative approach. The project obtained an approval index of 92%. The aspects that contributed the most were the actions developed during the clinical cycle followed by the primary cycle. These actions are related to the first contact with public health and social sciences aspects, showing new tendencies in the oral health/disease care process, fostering the teaching learning process to critically thinking on the dentistry in terms of the preventive perspective in relation to the appeal that current traditional curative clinical care exerts on students. This is a simple experience that has attempted to obtain positive responses to one of the most challenging problems for an effective implementation of the Brazilian Unified Health System which is the formation of a prepared and sensible professionals able to meet the population’s health needs and understand the importance and impact of the socio economic, political and cultural dimensions to health care.

Public oral health; Dental teaching; Family health