672. Dental doctors defend new oral health program in Madeira

The Madeira delegation of the Order of Dental Physicians defended today in Funchal that the Regional Government must resume the program of information and promotion of oral health, due to the increase in the number of children with dental caries.
We have to invest in the field of information and promotion of oral health, not only in schools, but also in informing parents. We can not lose what we did for 15 years in the schools of the region, said the president of the delegation of the Dentists Doctors, Gil Alves, after a meeting with the regional secretary of Health, João Faria Nunes.

The oral health promotion program in the Autonomous Region of Madeira is suspended and the Dentists' Association recognizes that, if it is resumed, a new methodology should be applied, not for lack of human resources, but financial resources.
Gil Alves stressed that there is an increase in the index of diseases, especially caries and gum disease, and regretted that the committee, created by the former Regional Government, in the context of early intervention in the diagnosis of oral cancer, has not continued.

We see, in our clinical practice, children of 3 and 4 years old with lesions of the dental caries disease, Gil Alves warned, emphasizing: we are constrained to be only treating the disease and not prevent it from arising.
The president of the delegation of Madeira of the Order of Dental Doctors also said that the regional secretary was receptive to concerns, and even communicated that he will appoint a dental professional to assist in the implementation of oral health measures in the Region.

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Oral health programs should be done taking into account available resources. The National Health Service should include the physical, human and financial means to integrate oral health in health centers and family health units. Over the past thirty years, the private sector has not yet contributed to solving the problem of unequal Portuguese access to oral health care and has used public resources in a very dubious manner in the final results obtained.It is the responsibility of the public authorities to integrate oral health into the National Health Service and guarantee equal access for all Portuguese to oral health care. For example, one can not continue to allow a person to assume risk behavior and Contracting certain diseases and thus having privileged access to oral health care; It is necessary to put an end to this discrimination so negative for so many millions of Portuguese.