403. Judgments of the Supreme Court

The Portal vLex allows consulting the various judgments of the Supreme Court Portuguese. Thus, if the player expresses strict necessity, can perform the activation of an account in vLex without any commitment for 3 days and consult various documents, including judgments within the dental profession.

402. Half of the Portuguese can not afford dentist

We estimate that about 50 percent of its population is unable to pay even a dental consultation in private. While there are no dentists in health centers or systems of licensing, people will be excluded from oral health, told a news agency Lusa the president of the College of Dentists, Orlando Monteiro da Silva.

The Dental Association has fought so that there are dentists in health centers and hospitals or portuguese in order to create systems with the private agreement. Orlando Monteiro da Silva cited a study by University of Liverpool, where Portugal is with 'the blackest scenario in Europe in oral health care. And it is largely the absence of tender by the National Health Service (Serviço Nacional de Saúde in Portuguese language) at the level of dentistry is also creating a surplus of these professionals in the country and the Order regrets the lack of manpower planning.

If the Portuguese population to have passed all access to oral health care, the dentists likely did not arrive, estimated Orlando Monteiro da Silva. But as this is not true, the Portuguese dentists are seeking other countries: We are exporting human resources for deficit countries such as England and the Netherlands, the Nordic countries because the profession is no longer attractive. Portugal and Poland are the countries that most contribute to oral health services NHS English, for example.

Estimates of the Order indicate that within three years, in 2010, a dentist for every 1,180 people in Portugal. By comparison, Spain has a professional for every 2,667 persons, one each for the Netherlands and the UK 2,118 people a per 2105 people. Projections of the number of dentists for the next years show a lack of control over-training of graduates. The result will inevitably increase unemployment and underemployment in the class, referred to the Dental Association.

In Portugal, only the autonomous regions have oral health systems to serve users of the SNS. In the Azores there are 19 dentists in the public health regional and Order provides that, in some years, the Azores are the best indicators of oral health. In the Autonomous Region of Madeira, there is an agreement between the regional health service and private, in the public system to partially reimburse the cost of users who use private dentists.

Destak

* * *

How long will we continue to portuguese pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes to pay for the training of every dentist and then later those same dentists can not perform dental care to people who really need?

Awaiting response to this situation at least absurd and ridiculous for a member country of the European Union, the Ministry of Health has the kindness to give proper reply to the email on this blog.

401. Presented logo application to Iberian World

The logo of the organization of the Iberian Jobs World 2018/2022 was presented this Thursday at a press conference at the headquarters of the Portuguese Football Federation. The ceremony was attended by Gilberto Madail, president of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), Angel Maria Villar, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and Eugénio Chorão, Managing Director of Euro RSCG Design & Architecture, a company that devised the image.

We tried to create a modern, contemporary and appealing to do a merger between the two countries - through their flags - through their passion for football unites them, said Eugene Whiner.

Madaíl already pointed out that this logo conveys desire to win two countries, two countries are intertwined, not only in football but also for its history, stressing that this was the symbol that more power could give this application.

Correio da Manhã

* * *

An example of the grotesque and perverse model of sustainable development that we want for the country. Since the overwhelming majority of the vital needs of access to health care, the ruling class does not look at ways to squander our resources on parties and events beyond the reach of the quiet citizen pays taxes and who will never get into a football stadium.

Seeing these megalomaniac projects we are facing an outrage and a disgrace to the suffering of those who need and can not have access to health care.

400. Inauguration of new government

Takes office today the second constitutional government of José Sócrates. The Minister Ana Jorge returns again to be sworn in office as Minister of Health.

The Oral Health welcomes the appointment of Ana Jorge to the position of Minister for Health and hopes that the new ministerial team to recognize the oral health of its population as a drama of urgent public health dealt with urgently.

Together with several industry associations and taking into account the pressing needs of the population in terms of oral health, we expect a greater openness to the dialogue in the search for consensus among all stakeholders, based on a new philosophy that is firstly to ensure access for all the Portuguese population to oral health care, banning discrimination definitely existing, giving a guarantee of perfect equality in access to oral health care.

Much remains to be done, starting necessarily for evaluating and reformulating existing oral health programs, which were unduly targeted excessively in terms of target audience, usually very limited in the treatments carried out and are essentially directed to the private sector. Recovery teams of school health is an aspect of great relevance, because it is within the schools that we should start a real battle for primary health care in terms of oral health.

In a developed country, is vital to ensure equity between public and private sectors, the state must invest in the area of oral health in such a way as to ensure an equal competition with the private sector of oral medicine, competing only for the citizens a choice between supply of Service National Health (S.N.S. in portuguese) and private. Is urgent to provide all health centers in the country with the prevalence of oral health, as they may initially entail higher financial costs but will have immediate positive impact on the health of its population, and a subsequent huge financial return for the state of the medium term.

Priority measure is the creation of Oral Health Newsletter for the entire population, including making it compulsory element immediately to children and young people in primary education and secondary education, as incredible as it seems no one understands that the most backward countries that our are already far more advanced in the area of child and adolescent oral health.

399. Post devotes the younger about the importance of oral health

Good oral health of our teeth and is a major essential conditions to have good health throughout our lives. Unfortunately, many opportunistic diseases are emerging without us realizing it and then later will bring very serious health problems.

Having all your teeth healthy and clean is always a mouth so that not arise after other diseases. Therefore, it is often very important to note the status of all your teeth, if you notice any stains or any other problem with a tooth, immediately inform your parents and your family doctor.

Whatever problem you have with any tooth must be treated immediately, because the teeth are part of our body and also need to be careful because they will live with us throughout our life.

Have you ever felt any pain? Well, if one day you lose a tooth, you can start having a pain that will be permanent and will last for the rest of your life. There will be a physical pain as normal, but a psychological pain, very difficult to cure or even without any treatment; lose a tooth for the rest of life can have disastrous consequences for us and that will never be repaired.

Who has lost a tooth is constantly asking yourself what the reason was because of losing a tooth; in addition, the lack of a tooth in our mouth can soon bring other very serious health problems, many of them not visible such as spending.

In Portugal also, to give the necessary importance to oral health care. The Ministry of Health have almost no interest in the subject because it invents the false excuse that it is very expensive to put dentists in health centers to treat people. The Ministry of Education is sloppy and does screenings in schools to all children and young people to identify those in need of treatment of teeth. The dentists need someone to pay the costs that have to do with the treatments they need to do to all people. And not just view your friends with the right to all who need treatment and you being barred from the same treatments you have.

So, as in many other things of our everyday life, we must ourselves to fighting for what we need. You gotta be yourself to be brave and demand from all (parents, school, family doctor) that address any problem you find in your teeth, you alone you got the problem and only you is that you suffer with the problem. So do not be complicit with never any problem with your teeth and looking for help that you can handle - will not be easy but never give up and do not stop fighting for what is your right: access to oral health care. When you're an adult you will be rewarded by better health and you'll be much happier.

And never miss the daily wash your teeth and use dental floss daily too, will be rewarded by better health and live many more years.

=============================================
EXTRACT FROM THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF

CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

=============================================

Article No. 3 - 2. States Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care necessary for their well-being.

Article No. 24 - 1. States Parties shall recognize for every child to enjoy the best possible health status and receive medical services and rehabilitation, 2. b) ensure that medical care and necessary health care to all children, emphasizing the development of primary health care; States Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of the right of access to such health services.

(Signed by Portugal on 26 January 1990 and approved for ratification by the Parliament Resolution No. 20/90 of 12 September.)

* * *

Pass along this message to the young; since it's so unfortunate disdain expressed by official institutions, including the ministries of Education and Health to assume its responsibilities for overall oral health of children and youth in the country, we will inform them of this situation to which they gain awareness of the enormous atrocities currently in Portugal on equal access to health care, including access to care and treatment of oral health in childhood and adolescence.

398. Oral Health in Portugal and the world

In Portugal there are economic resources, human and material to provide a comprehensive response to the needs of oral health care of the entire population, lack only the political will to make the Ministry of Health to assume its responsibilities and incorporate oral health in all centers health and public hospitals in the country, in perfect equality with the private sector, giving the same opportunities for access to oral health care to all persons without discrimination of age, social or economic opportunities.

Over the past few years, the Oral Health has done an analysis of oral health policy followed in Portugal. Most readers of Oral Health are from Portugal and Brazil, but we also have many readers of Spanish-speaking countries and French.

To exchange experiences, ask the readers of Oral Health resident outside Portugal to write and tell how it handles oral health care in your countries. The Oral Health has every interest in disclosing the reality of oral health policies in the various countries of the world and compare with what is done in Portugal.

Join in and write, using the email tempogero@gmail.com ; can monitor the activity of oral health in social networks, reading and subscribing to Friendfeed, Twitter and Facebook or activate the Feedburner RSS on your computer to keep track of updates to Oral Health.

Participation by all is essential so that we can alert and aware public opinion and political leaders for the Portuguese need to envisage the oral health care as fundamental to the overall health of the entire population.

397. Half of the Portuguese can not afford dentist

About half of its population is unable to pay a visit to the dentist, which is detrimental to oral health and is leading dentists to seek other countries to practice. We estimate that about 50 percent of its population is unable to pay even a dental consultation in private. While there are no dentists in health centers or systems of licensing, people will be excluded from oral health, he told a news agency Lusa the president of the College of Dentists, Orlando Monteiro da Silva. The Order has fought so that there are dentists in health centers and hospitals or Portuguese in order to create systems with the private agreement.

Orlando Monteiro da Silva cited a study by University of Liverpool, where Portugal is the darkest scene in Europe in the oral health care. And it is largely the absence of tender by the National Health Service (SNS) at the level of dentistry is also creating a surplus of these professionals in the country and the Order regrets the lack of manpower planning.

If the Portuguese population to have passed all access to oral health care, the dentists likely did not arrive, estimated Orlando Monteiro da Silva. But as this is not true, the Portuguese dentists are seeking other countries: We are exporting human resources for deficit countries such as England and the Netherlands, the Nordic countries because the profession is no longer attractive. Portugal and Poland are the countries that most contribute to oral health services NHS English, for example.

Estimates of the Order indicate that within three years, in 2010, a dentist for every 1,180 residents in Portugal. By comparison, Spain has a professional for every 2,667 residents, the Netherlands will have a professional per 2,118 residents and the United Kingdom have a professional per 2,105 residents.

Projections of the number of dentists for the next years show a lack of control over-training of graduates. The result will inevitably increase unemployment and underemployment in the class, refer to the Order.

In Portugal, only the autonomous regions have oral health systems to serve users of the SNS. In the Azores there are 19 dentists in the public health regional and Order provides that, in some years, the Azores are the best indicators of oral health. In the autonomous region of Madeira is an agreement between the regional health service and private, in the public system to partially reimburse the cost of users who use private dentists.

Destak

* * *

It is good that the future Minister of Health start by cleaning the house. Over the past four years have witnessed the birth and death of oral health programs, continuing always the same problem: all pay taxes to train dentists who are not placed after the service of those in need.

This aberrant situation can not continue to persist in a civilized country and must be condemned at all levels; oral health can no longer be treated by governments and industry organizations as a business.

396. Dentists use overpriced schemes for Social Security

Most dentists with contracts with ADSE (the social security system for civil servants) resort to illegal stratagems to offset the obscene amounts paid to them for their services. The complaint is Jorge Crespo, dentist in Vila Real, which has its case in court and ensures that 90% of them resort to what the class is called compensation.

The president of the College of Dental Association (OMD), Orlando Monteiro da Silva, confirmed to JN, aware of some cases and can only, however, refer to the competent bodies of those they receive through official channels. And it ensures that the direction of ADSE know what happens, but only works in situations visible, as it has acknowledged in meetings with the OMD.

Regretting that there is lawlessness, Orlando Monteiro blames herself ADSE. Present us with moral payout tables, which are not updated since 1991, says, pointing to the example of the value agreed that dentists receive for a query: 4.99 euros paid by ADSE and 2.49 euros paid by the consumer, that when , according to a study by Catholic University, the average cost of a consultation without treatment is 34.50 euros. It's ridiculous, do not even pay for the materials, classifies the president of the OMD, stressing the fact that he questioned the quality, both in terms of materials used, whether the time spent. This enhances the illegalities.

The OMD have tried to renegotiate the values of the tables and offered up his disposal, in exchange for a free system of reimbursement in which the patient would pay all the doctor and dentist would then be reimbursed by ADSE. Besides enabling the choice of doctor would allow a control treatment that is done, the patient would pay only what it is actually done. We have received no response, even says the president of OMD.

The JN also failed, despite 15 days of trial, any comment from the Director General of ADSE. It would be unpopular with the conventions end before the civil service, because it would force people to advance the cash, it threatens to analyze the president of the OMD, ensuring that the situation extends to other branches of medicine.

Asked why dentists are conventions that maintain them are harmful, Orlando Monteiro points the finger to the saturation of the labor market. We have almost five thousand dentists in Portugal and seven colleges. It is an excessive number for the country. Equivalent to a dentist to less than 2500 people in a country that dentistry is entirely private and which, as such, 40% of the population has no access. The vast majority of staff are under 35 years, have been formed since 1995 and working in shared offices, 41% of salaried workers.

Already there are many situations that unemployment and underemployment, said the president of the OMD, is preferable to work to lose money. Without career in the National Health Service (SNS), who has agreed to work for conventions, that the price trough, complete Jorge Crespo.

And if no open positions ADSE conventions for over ten years (which means that many dentists working for the ADSE chips with other professionals, illegally), another source of employment is found in insurance contracts with oral health. Then advance the OMD, there is one of the acts that are done for free. It is accepted because they are always having customers who will and can bring other ...

The OMD also shows the effect on competition result to the scales of ADSE, an issue that has, besides putting in the European courts.

Orlando Monteiro summarizes the features as marshy. And he believes that the streamlining would be resolved with training and with the opening of the National Health Service dentistry. Whether in 143 fixed or mobile clinics that exist in the SNS or by conventions.

Concerns that hopes to give his account once again to the Ministry of Health during its annual conference that starts today in Europarque. Where to enjoy the presence of President of Regulatory Authority of Health.

Jorge Crespo's dentist in Vila Real and had a contract with ADSE to be target of a lawsuit, which claims to be innocent. He accuses former colleagues to use chips from the convention on his behalf. Disgusted, decided to tell how he compensates for the low value of the payment agreements (which represent an average of 50% of patients each dentist). Invoice to tooth extractions for children who have lost them, treatments that never existed or have been charged by another colleague, for example. A system facilitated by the bureaucracy, forcing filling out a form in triplicate, sends the patient away without giving him his part, avoiding the scrutiny of who was treated. Then he continues, the user, will be charged an amount for the rental of space, past the part on a statement on behalf of the clinic and not the practitioner. Jorge Crespo ensures that 90% of dentists rely on these payments. And that does not inspect ADSE.

November 18, 2004

Jornal de Notícias

395. The largesse of 11 000 million from the state for business CITIGROUP and PORTUGAL TELECOM

At issue is the outright transfer of the fixed telephone network to Portugal Telecom in 2002. PT 365 million paid for an asset that has evaluated to date, at 2.3 billion euros. Sold to the fixed network by a sixth of its value, accused at the time Sonaecom, which stated perplexed with any business.

The need to find extra revenues is what motivated the implementation of this business, as Ferreira Leite assume the statements to i. The 365 million embedded, together with the granting of the CREL Brisa, allowed the State to respect the 3% deficit imposed by Brussels in 2002. The conditions are that the budget deficit planned for 2002 be fulfilled, he said then Manuela Ferreira Leite.

The following year, this limit was also respected thanks to another very controversial deal with the signing of Ferreira Leite, the divestiture of 11 billion of tax debts that the State had in their favor by Citigroup. Barroso's government sold these 11 billion by 1750 million.

i Informação

* * *

Have you thought about the amount of money at stake? Well, this public money for all of us was offered the two private entities without any return. Now do accounts and imagine, for example, that the money would be enough to ensure all expenditures for oral health of its population for over 200 years (5 generations); already now, please do also believe that politicians say there is no money a dentist to put in each health center in the country.

Pure shameless theft to the public good by the Portuguese government, more interested in snapping billions of euros in friends serving in the private groups that care for the public good. And then they complain of having children in the country with 10 years of age has no permanent teeth for the rest of your life.

The President's Office and the Attorney General's Office have nothing to investigate this type of harmful behavior completely by the office holders at the highest level of the state?

394. 10th edition of the Colgate Oral Health and the SPEMD

With the aim of preventing oral diseases and enhance education for proper oral hygiene among the Portuguese population, Colgate and SPEMD (Portuguese Society of Stomatology and Dental Medicine) held on October the 10th edition of Oral Health Month.

During the month of October, hundreds of doctors and dentists dentists throughout the country (including Azores and Madeira) will open the doors of their offices to make, voluntarily, free dental check-ups to the Portuguese population (without treatment or radiographic examination).

A decade later, the Month of Colgate Oral Health and SPEMD has allowed the realization of more than 95,000 free dental screenings and was institutionalized among the Portuguese population, who each year join in this campaign, and health professionals oral, to continue to voluntarily cooperate in this common effort to promote good oral hygiene of the population.

For any clarification, please contact:Emirec Communication - Cristina Brito Phone: 21 301 13 90, Mobile Phone. 918 840 101 - Email: cristina.brito@emirec.pt

How to participate? To participate in the Month of Colgate Oral Health and SPEMD, interested parties can obtain details of your stick closer to his home through the blue line - 808 205 206 daily from 17 September from 12.00 23:00. Mark your free dental check-up, directly to the office of their choice.

Sociedade Portuguesade Estomatologia e Medicina Dentária

393. 900 people from Vila Real de Santo António are already on the waiting list of dentist

After the cataract and eye treatments, which were the basis of mediated trips to the Caribbean island of Cuba, the Board of Vila Real de Santo António will now address the oral health of residents. To start with the program, six private hospitals have signed a protocol with the municipality, which will disburse a sum of 300 thousand euros.

In order to prioritize the most urgent cases, the county has also hired a dentist who, over the past two months, has been making weekly screenings in the three parishes of the county. In the case of ophthalmology, there was no network of partnerships with the private Portuguese because prices and quality were not competitive with Cuba. Now, there was an understanding of dental professionals of the county who were willing to practice a value below market prices for the treatments that were made here in the county, said the mayor Luis Gomes to Barlavento.

Asked whether the measure will open a new breach in relations with the Ministry of Health, the Social Democrat said that the only problem that exists is between the National Health Service (SNS) and the population. There are no dentists at the health center of Vila Real de Santo António and the Hospital de Faro there is only one or two, to treat the entire region, he argued.

For now, the protocol guarantees funding until the end of the year, although its color depends on the renewal policy that would occupy the chair of the executive after 11 October. The protocol is run and maintained as long as there is political will and needs of the population. It's like the protocol we have with the Republic of Cuba, which is endless unless either party can terminate it, said Gomes.

According to the mayor of Vila Real de Santo António, the 300 thousand euros now available are not sufficient to guarantee the treatments of the 900 people already on waiting lists, making it necessary to give priority to children and the elderly.

According to the program coordinator Vila Real de Santo Antonio to Smiling, Paulo Sousa, attention will be redoubled in the younger age ranges, where there are children under 10 years in the extraction of permanent teeth is now the only possible solution . About the causes of this situation, the dentist cultural issues associated with weak economic capacity of families. Note that there is, in Vila Real, groups with a high incidence of dental problems due to lack of resources to pay for routine dental treatment in private hospitals, he concluded.

Barlavento

* * *

It is shameful to be Portuguese and clearly aware that the Ministry of Health, Directorate General of Health and the Regional Health Administration of the Algarve allow the existence of children under 10 years old has no permanent teeth, right in the XXI Century, in popular tourist region of Portugal. The question is simple: any child under the age of 10 years family of the Minister of Health, Minister of Education, Mr Director-General of Health, the Chairman of the Board of ARS Algarve and the President of the Dental have lost their permanent teeth?

After all, where do the billions of euros in EU funds? Is it better to invest in airports and TGV or the health of the Portuguese? It will be more interesting to give sex education in schools that address the oral health of all children without exception?

This example proves that it is possible to give a complete circuit around the bleak panorama of oral health in Portugal when the representatives of power and dentists sit at a table and dialogue to reach agreement. The oral health problems no longer exist in Portugal if it was always the spirit to be followed by government officials and representatives of dentists and dentists.

392. About 45 000 students from private schools were excluded by the Ministry of Health

In public schools just take the right age to receive a voucher to the dentist. In particular, apart from age, you must also have low incomes to get the right one.

The elementary school students who are studying in private schools may benefit from dental checks issued by the Ministry of Health if they were coming from low-income households already earn and therefore state aid to attend those establishments, confirmed to the PÚBLICO the ministry's spokeswoman, Helena Marteleira. This condition - which excludes approximately 45,000 students in private, one-third of those attending the basics here - is not provided in the ordinance that last March, has extended the issue of dental checks for children and young people under 16 years, one of the main novelties of the new National Oral Health Promotion (PNPSO).

Nor is applied to students who study in public schools or private institutions of social solidarity (IPSS), which can benefit from the check in the amount of 40 euros, regardless of their household income.

Makes no sense. The rich who have children in public schools receive their checks, but the middle class who are in private does not qualify, said Rodrigo de Melo, executive director of the Association of Institutions of Private and Cooperative Education.

You had to start somewhere and it is the obligation of the state beginning with the public school, Helena Marteleira justified. The adviser of the Ministry of Health assured, however, that by 2013 the whole of youth under 16 years will fall by PNPSO, regardless of the type of school that often. But this is a boundary assumed in full by the Directorate General of Health (DGS), which in its circulars thus describes the overall objective of the plan: At 15, young people who attend public schools IPSS and the continent must have all their teeth Permanent properly treated and protected.

According to DGS, between April and August 31 were issued 199,102 checks for dental care of children born in 2002, 1999 and 1996. By the end of last month, only 86,672 had been used. The expiry date was 30 August but was extended until the end of October, as many checks were only distributed at the end of the school year or even longer vacations, explains Luis Calado, a staff at DGS by the plan.

By December, checks will be issued for those born in 2002, 1999 and 1996. Excluding those who attend private schools are about 250 000 children, almost five times more of which were covered in 2008 by the previous plan of oral health, emphasizes Calado, who has no doubts about the positive impact of this expansion.

A study of DGS realize that, with far fewer users covered, the percentage of children with caries at age six rose from 67 percent in 2000 to 49 percent in 2005.

PÚBLICO

* * *

This text allows several reflections. Some perspectives of analysis:

a) There are parents who can afford to place their children in private education, will also have full awareness that these parents can afford all the expenses of preventive health of their children in hospitals or private clinics?

b) Can the state (Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education) have the right to select and discriminate against citizens who should have access to preventive health care, promoting some and penalizing others?

c) What kind of society we have in the future in Portugal, from the moment that innocent children and youth are directly discriminated against in access to basic health care of any human being?

Final note: Just because bad faith appears the last paragraph of the news, the same study shows that in older children was exactly the opposite, which worsened considerably in the state of your oral health.

Express his views.

391. Oral culture in northern schools

Incentive Program for Education in Oral Health (PIESO) starts next academic year in 21 schools. A project that includes books with educational activities from the first until the sixth grade and suggestions for the twelfth year.

Oral health is essentially a behavioral problem and therefore there are important tips that should be treated as soon as possible. Oral hygiene to be a theme that goes along with certain curriculum, but it is a point of honor for those working in the area.

Thinking of promoting oral health care in the school community - never forgetting the vital trio of prevention, training and education - the Portuguese Union of Oral Prevention (UPPO) prepares to put the matter on the agenda. That is, oral health will enter the circuit of 21 schools in the north of the country as early as next school year. The process is still in preparation, but the mission already has a name.

Incentive Program for Education in Oral Health (PIESO) is the name of the project that will put the emphasis on oral health in the first and second cycles of basic education and secondary education. Education and motivation for oral health are well on the list of UPPO, a working partnership involving the Regional Health Administration and the North Regional Board of Education of the North. The PIESO also encompasses training in health centers to professionals and school health teams, to promote interaction between different actors.

UPPO's president, Mario Rodrigues, explains how the program will be implemented on the ground to classes in the second, fifth and twelfth grades. Younger children from six schools of Porto, will have three sessions guided by UPPO technicians and end could be made a play for the care of the teeth are present in everyday life. Actions are a major support. The books are educational activities in oral health, says the charge. Evaluation will be done through questionnaires and some epidemiological testing.

In the fifth year, students are awarded ten sessions, two of which in charge of technical UPPO. "The remaining eight will be given by teachers." Teachers are also a target audience of the PIESO or not they were a fundamental part of the school community. For this level, there are also books for educational support and guide the activities are planned two sessions of two hours, for educators and parents.

In the twelfth year of schooling, the aim is to throw challenges in the Project Area. The PIESO comes into play so that students can grasp some of the secondary ideas in the name of a healthy culture of oral health. Here's intervention is more UPPO consultancy. And ideas abound. Create a dictionary of oral health or a practical guide on the subject. Devise educational games or planning actions to raise awareness of the little ones. Occupy a column for the school newspaper with the subject or create a story for children about oral hygiene. These are some of the work possible.

The activities of the fifth and twelfth grade will involve 15 schools districts in the area of influence of the Regional Health Administration of the North. The PIESO of UPPO, who works for the implementation of a cultural oral health in an integrated way, has several institutional partnerships, including the National Association of Teachers and the National Confederation of Parents' Associations.

Educare

* * *

Another initiative for education for oral health. But note that in the whole project, not mentioning that all students will first be seen and treated by oral health professionals. I ask: what is the interest in these programs integrate oral health into the curricula of students is not a diagnosis made in advance and allowed the dental treatment to all children and adolescents before the implementation of the initiative?

Obviously we must first address the health and then yes to prevention, the opposite is walking with the cart before the horse.

390. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Portal on Youtube training in dentistry and oral health

Training in Dentistry and Oral Health

University of Michigan

(Portal of videos on Youtube)

* * *

WebSite: http://www.youtube.com/user/umichdent

389. Labelling of toothpaste

Information Circular Number 169/CD Date: 10/10/2008

* * *

The toothpaste with fluoride for children have been, at the European level, the relatively recent reassessment of the risk, culminating in the implementation of the relevant Directive (Directive 2007/53/EC of 29 August 2007) to the Decree-Law No. 189/2008 of 24 September. Indeed, the development of tooth enamel in pre-eruptive phase may be altered by several factors, including excess fluoride. Fluoride absorbed in excess can cause fluorosis, manifesting itself in the appearance of white spots and brown glaze that is irreversible.

Given that in children under 6 years and without adequate parental supervision, the swallowing of toothpaste contributes to the amount of fluoride ingested, it was decided to add the following warning in the labeling of toothpaste, unless it is contraindicated for children:

"Children aged under 6 years: Use an amount the size of a pea, with supervised brushing to minimize swallowing. If the intake of fluoride from other sources, consult your dentist or doctor."

The manufacturers, the person on whose behalf the product is manufactured or the person responsible for marketing must ensure that, as of March 19, 2009, may only be available to consumers toothpaste containing from 0.1 to 0.15 % fluorine, which include the warning that, unless already included in the statement, for example, "Only for adults." INFARMED, IP alert health professionals and consumers on the need for verification of information contained in the toothpaste containing fluoride.

Health Products Directorate (Fax: 21 798 7281; pchc@infarmed.pt)

The Board Luisa Carvalho

INFARMED

* * *

Tomorrow I'll buy a tube of toothpaste at a pharmacy and see if the law is actually being accomplished. Want to find out if the pharmacy is marketing the toothpaste inside or outside the law.

This may entail an attack on public health if the law is not being strictly enforced and monitored by competent authorities.

388. BRAZIL: oral health programs in schools

Brazil (Federal District) - Governor Jose Roberto Arruda launches this Friday at the Recanto das Emas, the Dental School, which will offer daily dental care to public school students. Starting today, the project will run in ten schools, but the goal put it to 334 000 primary school students.

Early as next week, starting to get schools to elementary school teaching materials for the development of oral health education. This material will be distributed to teachers and 334 000 students from elementary.

Last week a training was conducted with the heads of the Center for Monitoring Educational and Pedagogical Supervisors of all the Regional Education, to present papers and guidance on how to insert it into the day-to-day student. However, each teacher, depending on their individual experience, you can use the material as a route to the gradual introduction of the theme.

The elementary school teachers work on this theme oral health in a comprehensive and interdisciplinary over the first nine years of schooling.

Schools with more than 1,000 students have fixed offices. In the minors, including those from rural areas, students will be served by mobile units contracted by the Department of Health - trucks with three to four dental chairs and an X-ray machine each.

The services offered will include restorations in permanent teeth and milk, pit and fissure sealant, removal and / or pain relief, removal of foci of infection, periodontics, minor surgeries and fluoride application.

Prevention and Cure - The project, a partnership between the Departments of Education and Health, will have two fronts: a curative and a preventive and educational.

The healing portion will be held in the offices, fixed or mobile, where the service will be performed by dentists and oral health technicians gazetted the framework of the Departments of Health and Education. The educational and preventive part will be performed by these same professionals through lectures, workshops, oral hygiene orientation and toothbrushing unsupervised.

The professionals who will work in clinics in schools must reserve fixed during the five days of the week, a period in the morning and another in the afternoon to devote to oral hygiene care and achievement of students unsupervised brushing.

Actions will also take place education and prevention in oral health, which will be made to oral hygiene care and delivered an oral hygiene kit, at least three times a year to all elementary school students. This kit consists of oral hygiene toothbrush, floss, toothpaste big, fluoride, fluoride toothpaste and developer of plaque - suitable for brushing the night, an item that allows the student to identify himself if brushing is well made and correct it if necessary.

clicabrasilia

* * *

In Brazil, the oral health programs for young people go where it takes: the school and try to cover all children and young people without exception. This example clearly demonstrates the interest in effective and concrete measures where the state is able to establish itself as the primary and fundamental element of protecting the oral health of children and youth.

This is the best example of how to protect the rights of children and youth access to oral health care is exercised by the state, also in Portugal it is for the state to assume similar responsibilities allowing oral health is an integral part of the curricula of the teaching basic and secondary, and that prevention and dental care is offered in schools for all children and young people of school age, without any limitations or restrictions.

The importance of oral health promotion at school never, under any circumstances, should be placed at a lower level to promote sex education to all children and young people should be guaranteed the right to receive all necessary dental treatment necessary for their age, they should be included educational projects in schools and the Ministries of Education and Health should make available all resources to schools for implementation.

It is time to definitively abandon oral health programs of dubious execution, always in constant change as the ministers who will be replacing each other governments, and definitely bet on a universal school oral health status of preventive and curative done in schools, partnership with the community and technical experts hired by the state.

387. 210,000 dental checks used since May 2008

===========================================

In little over a year were issued nearly 360,000 dentist checks have been used about 210 000. Pregnant women were the most benefited from the aid, followed by the elderly. The schoolchildren, the latest group to join the National Health Programme, which are less resorted to dental checks.

RPT

* * *

The fact that those who most need for widespread access to oral health care to those who have had less access clearly demonstrates the perversion of the program.

For those who are inside the program and clearly knows his operation he understands his perverse and that it only serves to partially remedy the obvious shortcomings of the National Health Service.

Hopefully with a new government, a new team at the Ministry of Health and a new oral health policy, geared towards the real interests of people in need and not to fill gaps and meet the interests others.

The Oral Medicine can not be a privilege for anyone and must be available in the National Health Service in all health centers in the country, grouped or not in order, perfectly equal footing with the supply of private sector so as to allow them to be people to choose where to turn, it is exactly for this that we all pay taxes.

386. Excerpt from discussion between Paulo Portas and Francisco Louça (11/09/2009)

Excerpt from discussion about oral health

among the candidates for prime - minister in Portugal

* * *

* * *

Press on the picture and watch the video,

in Portuguese, on the new page

385. Rabo de Peixe (Azores): PS wants to create more dental appointments

The candidate of the PS / Azores to the city of Ribeira Grande, Ricardo Silva, called for opening a dental clinic in the village of Rabo de Peixe. Ricardo Silva was speaking after a visit to the health of Rabo de Peixe, accompanied by the clinical director of the Health Center of Ribeira Grande, Roso Lourenço.

Rabo de Peixe is a very populous village, with a high rate of young people every day seeking the Health Center of Ribeira Grande to dental treatment, the Socialist candidate - said in a statement the party - contends that a need and a priority to fulfill if elected. Being re-elected I will support the installation at the health unit of Rabo de Peixe a dental public with all the necessary equipment for care in oral health, said the candidate for the elections of 11 October.

Açoriano Oriental

384. Electoral Program of PS within the oral health

Defend and develop the National Health Service (Appointments major):

1.-Ensure that, by the end of the legislature, the national coverage of Health UnitsFamily;

2.-Extend the Oral Health Program to all children between 4 and 16;

3.-Double the number of seats in the Continuing Care Network.

Bases Programáticas do Partido Socialista

* * *

The Socialist Party's election program references in a row, extending the Oral Health Program to all children from 4 to 16 years. Just do not understand that after four and a half years in government, the Socialist Party will still take more than four years to expand the Oral Health Program only one track of the juvenile population, already assuming the commitment to leave many hundreds of thousands of children and young people outside the program automatically in the next four years (under 4 years and older than 16 years of age).

One must remember that the Socialist Party government abolished this year the National Oral Health, which I was careful to make a detailed analysis and highlight measures for its improvement, however, the government took the initiative to extinguish.

And nothing was said about the integration of oral health in the National Health Service Let us say that in the case of the Socialist Party were to win the parliamentary elections Sept. 27 and return to form government, a view to continuing the policies of disclaimer oral health status by the Portuguese, who will continue to be essentially privatized and only for the benefit of the social classes of high income, access to your disregarding the overwhelming majority of its population that pays taxes to form after that dentists are not available in hospitals and health centers to serve people who need to be addressed.

Knowing the saying that silence is consent, it would be nice if the classes linked to oral health professionals in Portugal also effecting an analysis of the electoral programs of each of the parties and issue a review on them before the elections, so that Portuguese got really clear about the direction that the politicians want to give oral health in Portugal.

383. Electoral Programme of the PSD under the oral health

Develop specific policies on child health, particularly with a universal screening of dental conditions, visual and hearing impairment and enlargement of child dental health paid by the State.

Correio da Manhã

* * *

Among the 40 pages of Electoral Programme are 3 lines with reference to the commitments that PSD takes over for the next term, should be government. Relevant measures appear to be too vague and that fall short of much that still has to work for oral health in Portugal, especially with their full integration into the National Health Service (SNS in portuguese).

At least we have a commitment by one party, how will the other parties? Also bring any proposal within the oral health? The inbox (tempogero@gmail.com) is available for your reception.

382. Why do I have to bear all?

To let everyone know here to list all entities who exposed my case, and which still wait for the fair and proper justice for what happened to me, in case of proven need all correspondence with each of the bodies.

• Attorney General's Office;
• Ombudsman;Former Health Minister and current representative to the elected European parliament Correia de Campos;
• Current president of the Regional Health Administration of the Alentejo;
• Director General of Health;
• Inspection of Economic Activities in Health;
• Supreme Court of Portugal.

I still await the proper replacement do physical harm and moral that I was the victim, since so far not yet received any reparations for the acts occurred. Ultimately I reserve the right to appeal to all these bodies to the European Court of Human Rights.

While I attended high school sought help from the health center of Vila Viçosa, where I was accompanied by a medical call Guida. In this unfortunate time I recall it has only done by an electroencephalogram complaints of tinnitus that have suffered at the time, never, but it never was I allowed any kind of support or monitoring the level of dentistry. Even for military service was inspected as cannon fodder, not that anyone has done me any kind of dental examination.

They used so ever in my naive to indirectly despise me because they were well aware of what could happen to me in the future when they reach adulthood. Would never have thought that if it were an adult, I also wanted to be a happy man and performed other persons or, conversely, to show contempt for me served to serve their own ego?

In short, nobody cared for my future, nobody thought twice that I too would one day reach adulthood and want to hold me personally and a family. Assuming the position they took, what they did (medical and health services they use) was to make my adult life in hell, doomed to abandonment and loneliness. So today I feel a tremendous anger and remorse for the people who should in due course and would be obliged to have made my life completely different for the better. Now I can not stand having to pay taxes to support those individuals who screwed me my quality of life forever, because I was a child and teenager, was not up to have the same consciousness that they had on what I would succeed.

http://oralhealthportuguese.blogspot.com/2009/05/191-memory-for-future.html

381. Dentistry at night and in eight years

Among the projects of restructuring and expansion of UFRGS for 2010, which promises to have most impact is the creation of evening course dental, already approved by the Board of Education, Research and Extension (Cepe). With classes exclusively at night, the traditional training has been redesigned and will require eight years of study (16 semesters) for students to be able to meet 18-22 hours per week.

Zero Hora

* * *

This concrete example, from Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul) show us how you can capitalize on resources available for the training of technicians of oral medicine, there are means and there is need for a greater number of oral health specialists to meet population.

Also here, in Portugal, should be focusing on diversifying the offer, the level of the various valences of oral health, using the resources available and providing an alternative pathway for training for adults already employed and who have not had the opportunity to train while young.

Here is the challenge to the various faculties of oral medicine across the country to set up courses also identical to post-employment courses diurnal regime, with appropriate adjustments to the curriculum. Would answer to the large demand for training and, moreover, would be more a formula to enable substantial increases in resources in the area of oral health, yet so scarce in the face of tremendous current basic needs of the population of our country, in terms of oral health.

380. DENTISTS: President wants regulation and inspection of commercial oral health

The current Chairman of the Order of Dentists (OMD) and a candidate in the forthcoming elections today defended the regulation and control of commercial companies who provide oral health care, some of them owned by people outside the profession. Orlando Monteiro da Silva warns against the danger of these companies, engaged in misleading advertising, conducting himself almost exclusively by a business logic without regard to ethics and ethics of the profession. According to the president of Dental Association (OMD), has become unbearable that professionals are regulated and limited liability companies and franshising not respect the obligations that dentists are subject.

In his candidacy for president - elections to take place December 12 - Orlando Monteiro da Silva proposed the negotiation with the Government and the Parliament, in proceedings to review the status of the Order, a special scheme for the formation of commercial society to provide care in oral health. This special scheme, he explained, would require mandatory registration of such companies in the Order of Dentists (OMD) as well as the obligation of the capital stock is owned in part by dentists. It is our intention to propose a percentage of quota that ensures that the control of the companies belong, in fact, the dentists, anticipated.

The special arrangements proposed already exists in Portugal for several other professions, including lawyers, auditors and solicitors. According to Orlando Monteiro da Silva, his candidacy is not against the creation of companies related to oral health, but against the situations in the criteria of profitability and earnings are built at the expense of third-world wages and low quality of services provided. In the last two to three years, he explained, there was a profound change in how the profession of dentist is organized.

According to Orlando Monteiro da Silva, there has been the spread of structures targeted only to a logic of immediate profit, with a vision of providing health care as a business and indistinct with aggressive marketing strategies. These structures, he said, using misleading advertising messages, advertise specialties that do not exist, call into question fundamental ethical principles for the profession and undermine public health and consumer. Such companies, he said Orlando Monteiro da Silva, rely upon are usually gaps in the Portuguese legal system, the poor performance of the regulator, the slow pace of justice, the difficulty of identifying clinical directors and even some of these structures are franchised entities.

In addition to considering this activity harms consumers, causing them to treatments that do not need, also says the young dentists prejudice, which are required to accept fees and working conditions outrageous and humiliating, jeopardizing the independence of the profession.

Expresso

379. National Program for Promotion of Oral Health - Report Contractualizing 2008

In the year 2008 to cover contractual allowed for dental treatment 65 371 children and youths, from 3 to 16 years. Nationally, 92% were involved in the Centers for Health. The health regions of Algarve and Alentejo developed contracting medical and dental, included in the National Oral Health Promotion, 100% of existing health centers in those regions.

For contracted health professionals, dentists and dentists, joined in 1532, more than 28% in 2007. The implementation rate in 2007 was 81% and 82% in 2008. However the number of children and young people increased by 19%. 65 000 children and youth referred for dental treatment, it moved to 80 000, 15 000 more than last year.

Of the 65 371 children and young people who actually entered into the program, 61 612 completed the dental treatment performed under the contract system (94%). The health regions of North and Centre were above the national average and both reached 98%. The health region reached 87% of the Algarve, Lisbon and Tagus Valley, Alentejo 88% and 87%.

The average number of visits per child or young person was 2.2. There is the Northern health region where the average hit it hit 2.6. Despite the difficulties concerning the treatment of children in the age group 3-5 years, the percentage of children enrolled in this case was nationally, 9% highlighting the Algarve region with the highest percentage of referrals and subsequent treatment of children group (12%).

Through the intervention had medical and dental health gains are important, particularly as regards the treatment of teeth that had lesions of dental caries. We have treated 71% of the temporary teeth and 96% of the permanent teeth that had lesions of dental caries.

The contracts with health professionals was carried out by the conclusion of a contract between two parties, private provider and the Regional Administration of Health to implement this process and obtain the results, is to highlight the commitment of professionals of the health centers, the Regional Health Administration, the contracted dentists and dentists who, in general, demonstrated unsurpassed professionalism, and all contributed to the promotion of child health and youth.

Source: Direcção-Geral de Saúde

* * *

The report's conclusion states that were treated 65 371 children and youth from 3 to 16 years, according to INE data there are over 1 million children and young people between those ages in Portugal. Doing the math, even though each child or young person is entitled only to participate in a single year, throughout his childhood and adolescence in the software, it appears that the program has never and will never be able to cover all children and young the country.

And ask a child or young person can only have monitoring of their oral health in one single year and throughout his childhood and adolescence? Dear reader surely draw their conclusions.

Only the stubbornness in denying the right to oral health carried out on immature person can lead to such health policies, trampling rights and compromising the quality of life of those who are most needy.

378. Chair malfunction leaves users without a dentist for more than three months at Health Centre

Users of the Health Center Ajuda in Lisbon, many of them elderly and low income, are without a dentist for more than three months as the chair of the specialty in dentistry is faulty. The chair has long walked to show signs of decay among users and practitioners. A wearer's Health Center, recalls in his last visit, have almost needed a ladder to be able to sit, since the lifting system was not, to rise or to fall. It took a lot of gymnastics, she confessed, laughing.

Breakdowns of the chair become unsustainable and the suspension of the consultations of dentists has come to pass, dragging it over time. The impasse has led even a group of residents to organize a petition to challenge the delay and lack of response from the direction of the Health Center Ajuda.
This situation is unacceptable. Many people are being harmed, especially the elderly, a critique of the promoters of the petition, blaming the Ministry of Health did not provide funds for replacement of the dental chair, fearing that the absence of the chair is a pretext to end specialty; remember that the elderly and the poor have no means of recourse to private. The Health Center has had two dentists, then stood with one. This is a fear I have, that the specialty has ceased to exist. But we are prepared to fight, warns one of the signatories of the petition.

The petition, with over two hundred signatures, was this week sent to the Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Tagus Valley, Ministry of Health and the Health Center, explained, in turn, the president of the local authoritythe, Joaquim Granadeiro. The mayor unveiled the JN that was there few days, meeting with an official of the Health Centre which ensured that the problem will be solved soon. After having sent the petition, I was contacted by the director, who told me that the chair would be arranged and that consultations would resume, said Joaquim Granadeiro.

The president also said that the prolonged lack of consultation has been the subject of many complaints from residents living in the area.

JN

* * *

In my humble opinion should have already been packaged and sent to the chair for the Office of the Director General of Health or the Office of the Minister of Health.

I'm still unaware that they both want it and that will come to ask for an investigation of inquiries to succeed, do not go to the event that any of them come the fall of that chair.

377. Interview on "Jornal 2" Chairman of the Order of Dentists

CopyRight @ Medicosdentistas

======================

An excellent speech by the President of the Order of Dentists in the Journal of RTP 2 (issue of the day August 4, 2009). Today it is clear that the current slew of oral health in Portugal is responsible: set of unscrupulous politicians and senior leaders installed in the state apparatus, with a lack of vision and planning strategy, alienated the population and social problems that have aggravated continuously, the problems of oral health in the country.

This situation must change radically with the next government, which will train and place the human resources area of oral health in the service of all people, without any kind of discrimination. It is urgent to put an end to the violation of elementary human rights committed in Portugal which is the current discrimination in access to health care.

We can not continue to allow most of the active population will continue to pay taxes to take care only of the oral health of the social classes of the bourgeoisie and the state apparatus.

376. Oral health hitting bottom in Portugal

Portuguese dentists in England:

=================================

President of dentists want more investment:

============================Young people make dental screening:

CopyRight @ RTP

=============

These reports show the sorry state of affairs that has been reached in our country with policies that various governments have implemented since April 25, 1974 to the present day: investments in opening schools and training of dentists without any planning, excessive supply of dentists in the domestic market, export of our best dentists abroad for nothing (after cost tens or hundreds of million of our taxes) and never before has the population is so abandoned to their fate in terms of oral health.

Becomes urgent and necessary to a profound and radical change of view of oral health in our country at all levels, and not leave unpunished totally irresponsible politicians who are really responsible for this deterioration of health care in Portugal and should answer in court for so very serious errors committed while rulers.

The country can no longer tolerate the aberration of the successive ministers who have guided the politics of oral health in our country, these are crimes in public that justice should act quickly.

375. Dental clinic accused of fraud to ADSE

During five years, a clinic in the city of Oporto invented invented consultations and issued false invoices that were reimbursed by ADSE. The fraud was around 200 000 euros. The prosecution has accused 63 former employees of the SMAS and the owners of the clinic.

On top of that fraud, according to the indictment prosecutors, advanced yesterday by the newspaper Público, reaches almost 200 000 euros, are the owners of the Dental Clinic Santo Ildefonso, Oporto - Felisberto Horácio, dentist and his wife, Julieta Monteiro, who was managing the company. Both are accused of fraud and falsification of classified documents. In the list of defendants are also 63 former officials Municipal Services of Water and Sanitation (SMAS) in the city of Oporto, and also for crimes allegedly complicit in the strategy outlined by the owners of the clinic.

According to prosecutors, the scheme consisted in the issuance of fake receipts in favor of the clinic. Through the endorsement of bills of ex-SMAS Porto, currently the City Water Company of Oporto, ADSE paid almost 200 000 euros in shares, for the support and social protection of employees and agents of government. The prosecution considers that there is evidence that in some cases, employees of the SMAS never even been clients of the health unit and, curiously, the receipts of treatments appeared on behalf of their relatives or colleagues.

In other situations, however, researchers have concluded that the value of the receipts had been fraudulently raised for the sole purpose of serving repayments, often to medical acts ever committed. Sometimes these values functioned as a kind of current account to pay for treatments to teeth that were in fact carried out.

Everybody made money: managers of the clinic received funding of health care has never provided and the staff of former SMAS (or family) pay nothing when they had need of any medical treatment. The facilities were such that the subject came by word of mouth and became known in the company. Moreover, managers at the Dental Clinic of Santo Ildefonso, sought to establish relations of friendship and trust with potential customers, facilitating, including payments for services not provided to friends and family.

The purpose was twofold: firstly, to increase profits and, secondly, increase considerably the number of clients because, for the relevant period (2001-2005) many of them went to the clinic because they were employees of former SMAS and know in advance that anything paid for medical care made. Done cross-checked data and the excessive number of receipts, some of them torn by a former employee of the SMAS (which, in a month, came to receive reimbursement of ADSE more than the salary paid by former SMAS) the researchers concluded that the defendants maintained a plan together for the illicit enrichment for society members who were due in cash values delivered by ADSE.

Jornal de Notícias

374. Summary program HEALTH SERVICE oral health (2009-06-16)

Read

Summary program HEALTH SERVICE oral health (2009-06-16)
in Scribd, typing here (Portuguese Version)
Warning: It takes a few seconds to open the document

373. Ten tips to keep your smile looking good

Ten tips to keep your smile looking good:

1. Brush your teeth at least two / three times daily, preferably after meals and before retiring;

2. Use a brush of appropriate size, soft and with a small head to prevent injuries to the teeth and gums;

3. Search always use a toothpaste with 1,000 to 1,500 ppm of fluoride (ask your dentist which toothpaste best suited for your teeth);

4. Avoid brushing your teeth only horizontally. Place the toothbrush slightly tilted in the passage by the teeth, so they do not wear over time;

5. Use dental floss daily before brushing to remove food debris and bacteria that exist between spaces and between the teeth and gums;

6. Follows the recommendations of your dentist in the use of elixir for rinsing;

7. Seeks to maintain and clean the teeth, especially along the gum line, preventing plaque and tartar;

8. Makes a regular dental review, preferably of 6 in 6 months, and an oral check-up at least once during the year;

9. Maintain a balanced diet and seeks to replace the candy for more nutritious foods like cheese, fruit and vegetables;

10. If you have sensitive teeth visit a dentist because it may be an indicator of dental caries, tooth fracture.

Professor Escovinha

372. New Frontiers 2009-2013 Forum hosted election promises in the oral health

The health, the topic under discussion in this Forum New Frontiers Wednesday, deserved at the end of assistance from the experts, the participation of Prime Minister Jose Socrates, who praised the National Health Service (SNS in Portuguese). With great emphasis, Socrates spoke in one of the major targets in its next term. This is the voucher program dentist. The socialist leader said he intends to generalize the scope of this program. Currently only affects children under seven, ten and thirteen years, a total of 200 000. Our commitment is to ensure by the end of the legislature access to oral health care for all children and all young people from four to 16 years, said the leader of the PS.

Portugal Diário

* * *

José Socrates promises to ensure the infamous oral health program based on the check-dentist to all children and young people aged between 4 and 16 years old in 2013, ie only for those born between 1997 and 2009. Are thus automatically guaranteed by the current head of government, the removal of the program hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents born before 1997, regardless of any clinical or social origin.

Taking into account the already precarious nature of this program of check-dentist, it becomes clear that not be the continuation of the current health policy advocated by the Socialist Party that the majority of children and young Portuguese will have access to oral healthcare. Thus, the majority of future generation of men and women of our country will continue beyond any possibility of access to oral health care in our country.

Now that Jose Socrates has put pen to paper on what will remain the case for oral health policy continues to be Prime Minister, the question remains: is it worth to vote in the Socialist Party in the forthcoming elections? You may not have interest in the subject but will we sacrifice more nearly an entire generation, spending tens of billions of euros in investments very doubtful for the improvement of living at the same time it will deny access most children and young people to oral health care?

Think before you vote.

371. In Portugal, the offenders have better oral health care to people without entries

It should be noted that, although this does not happen in other fields, the prison system today, provides stronger support to prisoners that the relevant national health service free to the public, particularly when it comes to dental care.

Provedoria da Justiça

370. Minister promises free dentistry for children

In due time I asked the political parties represented in parliament who did get to ORAL HEALTH proposals on oral health in their programs contemplated for the next term. So far only the CDS-PP had the courtesy to respond to the request, which can be read by typing here.

Thus, taking all knowledge of the absurd policy of discrimination that continues to be promoted by the current Ministry of Health, the government assigned the PS in the field of oral health, dividing between the Portuguese first (very few and mostly those who have money) and Portuguese second (the vast majority of the population and the largest contributor to taxes), it is worth remembering other political party by other forces when they were in power.

Below is the promise of the then Health Minister Luis Filipe Pereira, assigned to the government of the PSD / CDS in 2004, promising free consultations for all children and adolescents up to 18 years, beyond the promise of the feasibility of oral health in the National Service Health (promises that were much, much more that we currently have the government and implemented by the Socialist Party in the last months of his term).

However I am awaiting the proposals of other political parties.

* * *

Minister promises free dentistry for children

The health minister pledged yesterday to implement, as soon as next year, two free dental consultation for all citizens up to 18 years. The promise was made at a meeting with the president of Dental Association (OMD), Orlando Monteiro, who admitted curious considering the story go "so suddenly."

According to Orlando Monteiro, Luís Filipe Pereira have on hand a national oral health plan designed by the Directorate General of Health (DGS), which provides for consultations "in private offices, through a kind of convention in the state" will pay 37.5 euros "for each examination. Already with budget (which Luis Filipe Pereira declined to advance the OMD), the initiative starts in 2005 and should be implemented "gradually" under joint supervision of the DGS and the OMD.

Shyer seems intent of the Minister to begin to monetize the dental equipment out there, standing at the Department of Health Naconal was agreed that it would work to open the frozen waves of a few hospitals - too few - and then study the feasibility of the introduction of oral health in the National Health Service (SNS), Orlando Monteiro said, adding that Luis Filipe Pereira emphasized that would not open too many expectations to the people, not to open a floodgate that would become unmanageable in terms of cost. The idea seems to be doing pilot projects in health centers already equipped only for certain treatment and appropriate user fees. But it has no starting date.

The president of the OMD took the audience to denounce the imposition of free services to dentists by health insurance and the agreements with the social security system of public administration (ADSE), whose values do not even cover the cost of materials and illegal situations motivate overcharging. The minister referred the matter to the Ministry of Finance, the Competition Authority and Regulatory Authority of Health.

November 20, 2004

Jornal de Notícias

369. Websites of candidates for president of the Portuguese Dental Association

http://www.omd-pelosmedicosdentistas.com/index.php
* * *

http://www.umaordemportodos.com.pt/index.html

368. The most toothless smile in Europe

Portugal has the most toothless smile in Europe! How? Why?
First of all, the problem is cultural and educational. There has never been a program of dental education in the country. For Example, "Between a top model cell phone and a healthy smile people prefer the phone!" Even Public figures, with no financial problems, appear on TV with smiles full of holes, because most of the people think oral health is not a priority!Second, the public health system has no dental care whatsoever. The oral health of the Portuguese depends on the private sector. Not surprisingly, many people never go to the dentist until it is too late, when pain is not more bearable!
Third, the situation is even more serious when we consider that millions of Portuguese do not have access to dental care. For lack of buying power (a visit costs between 30 and 75 euros). The problem is especially serious among the old, with one half of senior citizens in Portugal not having one tooth in their mouth! The pensions are so low that they don't cover the high expenses of dentistry.
The lack of teeth results in problems of a psychiatric nature, such as isolation and shame. All in all, not a pretty picture.The problem though is not a shortage of dentists. In a region where almost no dentists even existed twenty years ago, there are now enough to attend to the population. All of them are private and not cheap. The seven Portuguese dental schools (three public and four private) now turn out about five hundred graduates in Dental Medicine.
In a few years the growth in the area will be out of control and this will bring serious problems. Of the 4,500 dentists registered in the Order of Medical Dentists (OMD), 20% are foreigners (from 34 nationalities).
The government also allows non-qualified dentists to operate legally. In a controversial decision the National Assembly passed a law legalizing all the dentists without diplomas (called "mechanics") to carry on their practice, with the dubious obligation to do a certain number of courses in a determined number of years. No one thinks that these so called dentists will ever do any courses. Many of them are semi-illiterate and some are too old to set foot in a classroom. Not surprisingly, the population with fewer financial means prefers these ? dentists? because they are cheaper.
The OMD says that in Portugal there are "hundreds of illegal dental clinics." The denunciation of this "shameless situation that occurs in Dentistry, without any control?, comes from Orlando Monteiro da Silva, president of the organization. He states that public health is at risk from the possible transmission of communicable diseases, like Aids and hepatitus, by way of blood and saliva. Furthermore, there is illegal competition for professionals who are already facing the shadow of unemployment.
Recently, the Assembly of the Republic approved a law, readied by the parliamentary group of the Democratic Social Party (PSD) , that will give to the order, powers to inspect and to combat the false dentists, who proliferate all over the country, with particular prominence in the outskirts of Lisbon.
The present law was the only way to change the Order statutes, which now give the Order power to intervening in the combat against the shamless situation that is taking place in Portuguese dentistry, where hundreds of individuals practice with no academic training whatsoever.
With this change in the law, the OMD doesn`t hesitate to "call the police" and "order the closing of clinics that operate illegally?. In addition to the Doctors in Dentistry, who are graduates of the schools of Dental Medicine, there are about 600 "Odontologistas", recognized by the National Association of Portuguese Dentists (ANDEP). Some of these dentists are Brazilians (university graduates and others are graduates of recent courses in Portugal, while others have no diploma whatsoever).
Special recognition was given to these professionals in order to preserve acquired rights. Hundreds of candidates were left out, and despite being excluded by the ANDEP, continue to practice dentistry. These are the targets to be hit. The argument of the OMD, besides the obvious illegal competition, relies on aspects of public health, like improper sterilization of material. Patients visiting these "dentists" put their health at risk!
The European Commission has instituted a suit against Portugal in the Justice Court of the European Communities, because it considers that the legislation regulating the profession of dentist violates the community directives on Dental Medicine. For the Commission, which is acting after a complaint from the OMD, the profession of ?Odontologista?, as it is defined in Portuguese legislation, has a "field of activity almost identical" to that of the graduates of the schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine. Odontology appears as an "alternative and competing" profession with that of dentist, when its professionals do not have the qualifications foreseen in European directives.
The OMD contested Law 4/99, which has already been repealed, but has still not been able to hinder the "odontologistas", who have been awarded professional documents, even some who have any university training.It is thus that the smile of the Portuguese goes!
André Almeida, Dental Student of Health Sciences Faculty of Fernando Pessoa UniversityQue dois