From incremental dentistry to the health at school program – the participation of the dental surgeon in the health promotion of schools in the municipality of Fortaleza – Ceará

Da odontologia incremental ao programa saúde na escola – a participação do cirurgião-dentista na promoção à saúde dos escolares no município de Fortaleza – Ceará

Abstract

The School Health Program (PSE) appears as a way of working on the importance of self-care, disseminating information related to health, through a strategy of integration and permanent articulation between education and health policies and actions, with the participation of the community intersectionally involving the family health and basic education teams. The objective of this research was to analyze and verify the participation of dentists in the PSE in Fortaleza-CE. This is a quantitative, descriptive, observational, and cross-sectional study. The target population was dentists from the Family Health Strategy of the Primary Health Care Units in Fortaleza. Data collection was carried out from March to April 2021 through a structured questionnaire sent via the internet to research participants. Data were tabulated in Microsoft Excel and exported to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 20.0 for Windows, in which the analyzes were performed adopting a 95% confidence level. As a result, it was found that of the professionals who were interviewed 80.4% (n=45) were female, 98.2% (n=55) knew about the health program at school, and 57.1% (n=32) carry out the activity of surveying the number of students identified with oral health needs. The planning was carried out by 87.1% (n=49) of the participants. It is concluded that professionals have adequate knowledge about the PSE and that the vast majority carry out activities in the program, especially dentists, nurses, oral health assistants, and community health agents. Thus, strengthening the PSE becomes an excellent strategy for working with children and adolescents, seeking to implement healthy habits.