Classificação de risco como instrumento para organização do processo de trabalho e viabilização da equidade no acesso aos serviços odontológicos

Abstract

Considering the great suppressed demand for dental services for primary school students, this study sets forth a proposition for oral health intervention of the primary school unit in the district of Pires in the city of Congonhas, Minas Gerais. The proposition at hand has as its focus the use of criteria to classify risks as a strategy for organizing programmed demand. In this study all the variations of risk classification were discussed, whether specifically related to dentistry or not. The discussion of the criteria was based on the principles of the national health care system (SUS), such as universality, integration, and especially the equality of access to programmed demand for dental services in the family health strategy. It was verified that such principles do not function in isolation, but are interrelated in such a way that the deficiency in one area inevitably conflicts with maintaining the other, ultimately undermining the whole construction process of the national health care system (SUS). Classifying risks (as social, environmental, pathological, or particularly dental health risks) qualifies as good instrument to be used for organizing the work process for oral health teams integrated with family health. In view of the problem of suppressed demand and the hindrance from the dental assistance model to be overcome, such risk classification criteria appear as an effective proposition for intervention in order to achieve a national health care system which is universal, fair, and complete.