The knowledge through hands

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the main political-pedagogical contents of dental education in Brazil. The foucaultian archaeological method was used through articles, essays, correspondences and different narratives on the subject including excerpts of curricula. There were no explanations aligned in a single time cut, presenting in a diachronic way. Thus, the textual narrative presents ruptures and jumps, although it shows synchrony throughout the explanation allowing coherence and intelligibility to the text. The dental profession is characterized as a technician with strong dental centering, while teaching is seen from the emphasis on laboratory work and the field of materials and techniques for making prostheses. Given this cut, the article set out to analyze the historical contents present in the contemporary curriculum of dentistry. Such contents express what in the nineteenth century was called "instruction of the spirit by the hands", which means education of the dental student through the exercise of manual skills. Thus, the old design of the profession, with its dento-gingival limit, is presented together, and it is evident that the political pillars and conceptions of what the dentist's work is kept to this day and age.