Dentistry training: challenges for teacher development and effective inclusion in the Unified Health System

Abstract

The difficulties faced in implementing the National Curriculum Guidelines for undergraduate Dentistry courses are reflections of the difficulty of operating changes in an educational system that has remained hostage to the minimum curriculum for decades and with ideological resistance in adhering to proposals based on the production of care. To face these difficulties, the present study sought to verify the applicability of evaluation criteria for training in Dentistry with a focus on training focused on Brazil’s Unified Health System and the pedagogical approach. A documentary study of the Pedagogical Projects of the Courses, application of a matrix of criteria, and an interview with the coordinators of four Dentistry courses from public and private institutions was carried out. The coordinators' perception became a privileged space for reflection on the advances and limitations of the pedagogical project, serving as a self-assessment process on the main challenges to be faced. There is a clear need for new regulations providing for the mandatory formal bond with SUS, especially in the curricular internship, as well as strategies that effectively contribute to the permanent teaching development, enabling the construction of integrated curricula and effective incorporation of active learning methodologies.