%0 Journal Article
%T Constructing public oral health policies in Brazil: issues for reflection
%A Catharina Leite Matos Soares
%J Brazilian Oral Research
%D 2012
%I Sociedade Brasileira de Pesquisa Odontol¨®gica
%R 10.1590/s1806-83242012000700014
%X This paper addresses the construction of public oral health policies in Brazil by reviewing the available literature. It includes a discussion of the social responses given by the Brazilian State to oral health policies and the relationship of these responses with the ideological oral health movements that have developed globally, and that have specifically influenced oral health policies in Brazil. The influence of these movements has affected a series of hegemonic practices originating from both Market Dentistry and Preventive and Social Dentistry in Brazil. Among the state activities that have been set into motion, the following stand out: the drafting of a law to regulate the fluoridation of the public water supply, and the fluoridation of commercial toothpaste in Brazil; epidemiological surveys to analyze the status of the Brazilian population's oral health; the inclusion of oral health in the Family Health Strategy (Estrat¨¦gia de Sa¨²de da Fam¨ªlia - ESF); the drawing up of the National Oral Health Policy, Smiling Brazil (Brasil Sorridente). From the literature consulted, the progressive expansion of state intervention in oral health policies is observed. However, there remains a preponderance of hegemonic "dental" practices reproduced in the Unified Public Health Service (Sistema ¨²nico de Sa¨²de - SUS) and the Family Health Strategy.
%K Oral Health
%K Health Policy
%K Dental Care
%U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1806-83242012000700014