Resumo

ARAUJO, Denis Bezerra de; MENEZES, Léa Maria Bezerra de  e  SOUSA, Denise Lins de. Secondary dental care and implementation of specialized dental clinics in a state in Northeast Brazil. RGO, Rev. gaúch. odontol. (Online) [online]. 2012, vol.60, n.1, pp. 49-54. ISSN 1981-8637.

Objective To describe the implementation of secondary oral health care services in the Brazilian state of Ceara, through secondary data on specialist dental clinics and the provision of specialist dental care. Methods Descriptive epidemiological study that used secondary data from the diagnosis of specialist dental clinics conducted by the Health Department of the state of Ceara and the production of secondary outpatient dental care recorded in the Outpatient Information System from 2000 to 2010. Results An increase was detected in the number of specialist dental clinics in the state, and consequently an increase in the recording of specialist dental procedures after 2004, showing a greater provision of such services to the population. Conclusion Despite the expansion of secondary oral health care services in the state of Ceara and the growing number of specialist dental procedures recorded in the Outpatient Information System of the National Health Service in the country as a whole, the capacity to solve the issues of these services is still considered to be a challenge for managers and professionals in oral health care, which may compromise the establishment of reference and counter-reference systems, having negative consequences on the doctrinal principles of the National Health Service in the state, such as universality of services, equitability and totality in health care.

Palavras-chave : Dental health services; Dental specialties; Public health policy.