Permanent Health Education and comprehensive care in dental specialty centers.

Abstract

Introduction: Permanent Health Education consolidates its theoretical and practical bases in a dynamic and liberating process, emerging within secondary dental care, as an intrinsic and extrinsic tool with the potential to generate reflections and actions on the work process. Aim: Objective: to analyze Permanent Health Education actions and their impact on the integrality of the work within routines of medium-complexity care in Dentistry. Materials and methods: this exploratory cross-sectional study was based on secondary data from the second cycle of the Program for Improving Access and Quality of Dental Specialty Centers. Results: a logistic regression model defined using bivariate analyses showed that the chances of permanent health education actions were 26-fold higher in the presence of matrix support or support actions. Also, the presence of a manager with background in collective health, incentives, gratuities, or financial awards according to performance, periodical planning and assessments, and the practice of self-assessment increased the chances of occurring these educational actions. Conclusion: this study evidenced the relationships between permanent health education actions and the strengthening of comprehensive care in medium-complexity dental care practiced in Dental Specialty Centers (i.e., matrix support, a manager trained in collective health, periodical planning and assessments, and self-assessment).