Given the need for guidelines for oral health technicians (OHT) to undertake their activities, prior to Act 11889/2008, which regulated this category's professional practice, a research-action was carried out in 2008 at 12 health centers and involved 350 users, 22 OHTs, and 22 dentists. The goal was to systematize the OHTs' attributions in the city of Belo Horizonte. This was a qualitative study, based on interviews, focus groups, workshops, and participant observation. The content analysis technique was used to carefully examine the information, and the following categories were gathered based on it: practice substantiation and action standardization; professional appreciation and resistance strategies; progress made and challenges; and research-action mode. Transforming the work place into a place of learning allowed for advances such as cooperation and co-responsibility. Good supervision by the dentist has provided quality to the work done by the OHTs, even in the atraumatic restorative treatment.
oral health technician; research-action; in-service training