Assessment of the frequency of routine removal of dental plaque prior to caries diagnosis by dentists in three cities in southern Brazil

The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of routine use of dental prophylaxis prior to visual inspection, in order to diagnose caries, by dentists with different lapses of time after graduating time. One hundred and fifty one Brazilian dentists were interviewed in 3 Brazilian cities to determine if they usually remove dental plaque prior to visual inspection for caries diagnosis. The dentists were stratified according to year of graduation. The association between the lapse of time after graduating and the practice of routinely removing dental plaque before clinical examination was tested using the chi-square test with a significance level of 5 percent. Only 28.5 percent of the dentists reported that they usually remove dental plaque prior to clinical examination. The dentists who graduated in the last 15 years presented the lowest percentages of plaque removal prior to clinical examination (15.1 percent), whereas the more experienced dentists reported that they perform prophylaxis more frequently. Of the professionals who graduated from 1960-1975, 23.9 percent reported that they performed dental plaque removal prior to diagnosis, whereas the figure for those graduating from 1976-1990 was 46.2 percent. Most of the dentists interviewed reported that they did not remove dental plaque prior to performing visual diagnosis of caries.

Perfil dos cirurgiões-dentistas especialistas em Saúde Coletiva, no Estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil / Evaluation od public health dental specialists from the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil

A especialização na Odontologia está tão sedimentada que sua presença na prática clínica não é apenas aceita, mas demandada pelos próprios consumidores. Dentre as variadas especialidades, a Saúde Coletiva, constitui um conjunto de teorias e práticas que se organiza e se diferencia para compreender, explicar e modificar o processo saúde-doença, em seus aspectos materiais e não materiais, na dimensão coletiva, assim como as formas de respostas socialmente organizadas para o enfrentamento das necessidades de especialistas em Saúde Coletiva, no estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil. Realizou-se estudo transversal e descritivo com aplicação de questionário auto-explicativo, envolvendo os especialistas...

Specializations in dentistry are so deeplyrooted that their presence in clinical practices are not only accepted, but also demanded by the consumers themselves. Among the varied specialties, public health consists of a set of theories and practices that organize and differentiate themselvesin such a way as to understand, explain, and modify the health-illness process, in both its material and non-material aspects, in the collective dimension, aswell as in the forms of socially organized answers to confront health needs. The objective of this studywas to assess the different dimensions related to dentists, specialists in public health, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Cross-sectional and descriptivestudies were conducted...

Teaching of bioethics in dental graduate programs in Brazil

In the field of human research, researchers are faced with unexpected moral dilemmas, as a result of the development of technologies applied to health. Due to the great importance of this issue, our objective was to evaluate bioethics instruction in the education of researchers in Brazilian graduate programs in dentistry. Eighty-seven graduate programs in dentistry, recognized by CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) were evaluated in this study. Data were extracted independently by two researchers from the CAPES website, and from the websites of the graduate programs, directly or via links to the programs available at the CAPES website. Forty-eight out of 87 programs had an ethics/bioethics course as part of their curricula. Of the graduation programs graded 5, 6 or 7 by CAPES, 38 percent included bioethics courses, while 62 percent of the programs graded 3 or 4 by CAPES had bioethics courses as part of their curricula. These findings are an alert to those involved in dental research education, as they showed that, although resolution 196/96 by the National Council of Health regulating human research in Brazil was published ten years ago, bioethics instruction in Brazilian graduate programs in dentistry is still at an incipient stage. This situation indicates a need for ethics pedagogy in the education of young researchers.

O desenvolvimento de tecnologias aplicadas à saúde traz dilemas morais inesperados aos profissionais de pesquisa, em relação às práticas que envolvem seres humanos. Devido à relevância deste assunto, o objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o ensino de bioética na educação de estudantes de programas de pós-graduação em Odontologia do Brasil. Oitenta e sete programas de pós-graduação em Odontologia, avaliados pela CAPES (2001-2003), foram estudados. Os dados foram extraídos, de maneira independente, por 2 avaliadores, por meio de consulta ao sítio da CAPES e aos sítios eletrônicos dos programas, diretamente ou via links dos programas disponíveis no sítio da CAPES. Dos 87 programas, 48 apresentaram disciplina de Ética/Bioética. Trinta e oito porcento dos programas com conceitos 5, 6 e 7 da CAPES mantêm disciplinas de Bioética, enquanto 62 por cento dos programas com conceitos 3 e 4 apresentaram conteúdos de Bioética. Desta forma, os resultados deste estudo representam um alerta para os educadores envolvidos em ensino da pesquisa odontológica. Estes resultados também mostraram que a instrução em bioética ainda é incipiente nos programas de pós-graduação em Odontologia no Brasil, ainda que a resolução 196/96 do Conselho Nacional de Saúde tenha sido publicada há dez anos. Por este motivo, seria necessário assegurar uma pedagogia ética na formação do jovem pesquisador.