701. More than 70 oral hygiene products analyzed by Infarmed

More than 70 cosmetic oral hygiene products, including toothpaste and elixirs, which are subject to microbiological quality analyzes by the National Medicinal Products Authority (INFARMED), are within the authorized amounts, according to a report by that entity. According to the report released today by Infarmed, the market supervision and cosmetic products aimed at analyzing the maximum levels of fluoride, preservatives, whitening substances and microbiological quality.

The chemical and microbiological analyzes of the 76 products, including 67 toothpastes, revealed that the values obtained were lower than the maximum permitted levels, complying with legal limits, it is revealed. INFARMED explains that the chemical analysis focused on three types of substances: fluorine, triclosan and hydrogen peroxide.

If the analyzed products had values above those allowed, burns and tooth sensitivity (in the case of hydrogen peroxide), possible induction of antibiotic resistance (triclosan, in continuous exposure) and possible tooth enamel damage could occur (fluor, in continuous exposure), is underlined. Regarding the microbiological quality analyzes, INFARMED explained that these are performed according to the place of application of the cosmetic product - such as the mucous membranes - or the intended audience, namely children and babies. The laboratory analysis of these products consisted of evaluating the presence of bacteria and fungi, reports INFARMED, adding that high microbial contamination could cause a high risk of infections.

INFARMED informs that it has selected the area of oral hygiene for supervision due to the increase in the supply and demand of this type of products. The Authority annually defines the areas to be monitored on the market for cosmetic products, with the highest potential risks to public health, including products intended for populations at risk (infants and children) or research on banned substances, as a priority.

TVI24   

700. Check-dentist: what it is, how it works and who has the right

Created in 2009, the National Oral Health Promotion Program began by covering children and young people up to the age of 16 who attend public schools or private social solidarity institutions (IPSS). Subsequently, it was extended to pregnant women, the elderly, people infected with HIV, children and young people of 7, 10 and 13 years of age with special health needs.
In 2018 an electronic oral health report will be made available, a measure included in the Simplex + program. This document will be made available on the SNS portal. From then on, dental checks will also be issued digitally, arriving to the users by sms or e-mail. The number of checks that each group of beneficiaries is entitled to is defined by the Ministry of Health. The purpose of this measure is to avoid the loss of checks and to increase the use of checks.

Who can benefit from dental checks?
- Children up to 6 years of age in a situation considered to be serious, taking into account criteria such as pain and degree of infection in temporary teeth, a dentist's check may be assigned per year;

- Children attending public schools or IPSS (private institutions of social solidarity): at 7 and 10 years of age they are entitled to 2 dental checks, for an equal number of consultations. At the age of 13, 3 consultations are planned. The first check is provided through the school and the following by the dentist. To young people with 15 years of age who have been beneficiaries of the PNPSO and following their treatment plan at the age of 13, a dental check may be awarded per school year;
- Children and young people of 7, 10 and 13 years of age with special health needs, such as those with mental illness, cerebral palsy, trisomy 21, among others, who have not yet been covered by PNPSO;

- Young people of 18 years, provided they have been beneficiaries of PNPSO and concluded the treatment plan at the age of 16;- From the age of 65, those who receive the solidarity supplement for the elderly benefit from 2 annual checks to treat the teeth;- Pregnant women in the National Health Service receive 3 consultations, which can occur up to 60 days after delivery. They will be assigned by the family doctor;-In the case of HIV patients, the program provides for 6 checks. The first is assigned by the family doctor and the rest by the dentist. Checks also cover HIV patients who have already been covered by PNPSO and have not been receiving treatment for more than 24 months;- High-risk patients (eg those who have had tumors, smokers and heavy drinkers) or suspected mouth injuries are entitled to two annual diagnostic checks of € 15 each and, if necessary, another two for the biopsy (each check for 50 euros). The process of assigning the check is triggered by the family doctor;

Where can you use it?
Check-dentist can be used in any dentist doctor, in private dental clinics or clinics. They do not have any restrictions regarding the area of residence of the user, and can be used anywhere in mainland Portugal. Consult the list of participating dentists on the General Health Directorate page.
The scope of use of check-dentist provides for the promotion of oral health, prevention and treatment of oral diseases. In the use of the dental check, for each beneficiary group and in the scope of treatment, there is a set of specific acts of their own. In particular, in the case of children, the program only covers the treatment of definitive teeth, except in the dental check for children under seven years.

Jornal Económico   

699. The importance of dental medicine in the National Health Service (SNS)

Since the 1980s, when I finished my degree in Dentistry, I hear about the importance of having dentists to provide oral health care at the National Health Service (SNS in portuguese). By that time, all those who had just finished their dental school were immediately working. All! Those who were very good students, the average and even the less skilled. We could all get to work. And all, or almost all, in the private exercise of the profession.But this abundance of work and the ease with which we settled in the professional world did not prevent the first leaders of the Professional Association of Dental Practitioners (APMD) from striking to see the political power of the time how important it was to entry of dentists into the public health service so that they could, broadly speaking, have access to oral health care. From the first moment that the maximum leaders of the APMD, in that time led by Professor Doctor João Carvalho, did everything to obtain this objective. It should be noted from the above that it was not because we had difficulty working, but because we could not be indifferent to the fact that a large percentage of the population, much more than today, does not have the economic capacity to access the offices and to private clinics.

A question of justice, enshrined in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic: The right to health protection is carried out through a universal and general national health service and, taking into account the economic and social conditions of the citizens, is free. Guarantee the access of all citizens, regardless of their economic condition, to the care of preventive medicine, curative and rehabilitation.Unfortunately, since its inception, dental medicine has been excluded from the National Health Service. It was therefore quite natural that since 1991, when the APMD was created, this issue was part of the concerns, struggles and negotiations with the guardianship It's been over 25 years. It was not because of lack of commitment or lack of will of dental practitioners and their leaders that, with the exception of a few cases scattered throughout the Continent and the reality of Madeira and the Azores, oral health remained outside the public service.

It was because the politicians, the decision makers at this level, never wanted to take the step forward and always preferred to postpone the decision, making use of a wide variety of excuses to do so. I want to emphasize, as it is true and for justice, that all the staff members, secretaries-general and leaders of the APMD and the OMD have always defended and always beat each other to change this state of affairs. Only the political class, first, did not listen to us and then, when it began to hear us, was postponing the resolution of the problem.
And so it was in January 2016 when the Secretary of State Assistant and Health, Professor Fernando Araújo, announced the intention of his Government to create the conditions for dental medicine to enter the SNS. To this end, he proposed to dialogue with the OMD, in order to reach the much desired presence of dentists in the SNS.

The solution proposed by the Government in April last year did not meet our demands, as is well known. For this reason, it unanimously decided that the Governing Board of the OMD did not sign with the Government the protocol that defined the conditions of the 2016 pilot project and that led to the entry of 13 colleagues in other health centers to provide primary oral health. However, by not having signed the protocol, the Board of Directors of the OMD also wanted to keep the doors open for dialogue so as to be heard and to contribute to improving the conditions of care provided, should the Government decide, as it happened, to extend the pilot project, after the first year.Would another position be responsible? Could we seriously sulk and closed this door that had just opened? Even if it did not open as we all wanted? Indeed, some improvements have been achieved from the first to this second model of oral health care delivery in health centers: the contracts to be established are preferably from one to two years, from 13 health centers to more than 50, the geographical area it is no longer just Lisbon, Tagus Valley and Alentejo to cover the North, Center and South of the country, the salaries of the dentist and dental assistant are improved, etc. ...

We are all aware that the present conditions are not yet desirable and that there is much more to do. Nobody could expect that, after more than 25 years without anything very relevant having happened, immediately, in a year or two, if all the conditions we desired for the professional practice of dental medicine within the NHS were reached.
The recent decision of the Government to form a working group, which aims to create the conditions to reach the dental medicine career in the SNS, should concentrate our efforts in a serious and responsible way, continue to beat us for such important desiderato . I would remind you that the electoral program with which the current OMD board has presented itself to elections, this point, referring to the public service in the SNS, is one of the priorities.

It is really important to ensure that, even for the most disadvantaged and the poorest, there may be, within the NHS, dental clinics where primary oral health care is provided. We know that this process will take time to bear fruit. Let us not create false expectations. We want to hear all the social bodies of the OMD. We count on the collaboration of all the dentists; we will want to hear the whole class in a public consultation on this matter.

Portuguese dentists are needed, with a dignified career, in the National Health Service. The Portuguese population deserves, and needs, that this happens.
Dr. Pedro Pires, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of OMD
O JornalDentistry

698. Supermarkets with oral medicine consultations (2nd part)

Dental dentists against Dr. Wells opening
António de Sousa says he is ashamed

Following the news of the opening of a network of clinics of dental medicine and aesthetic medicine by the giant Sonae, several dentists have shown their dislike in social networks. The dentist António de Sousa was one of them and said to be ashamed because when it embraced the profession it was by love to the same one and not by the clothes Prada or by the cars of range. Here is the opinion of the dentist:

Embarrassed
Mr President and the other leaders of the Order of Dentists (OMD in portuguese language), and you and a large part of your staff have been responsible for the OMD for 16 years, it is my colleagues who are responsible for the shame I feel as a dentist. When I embraced the option for this profession 30 years ago I did it for the same taste; it was not the second or third option, it was even the first.

I did not do it for Prada clothing or high-end cars, but for the taste of dental art, for independence as a worker that I can have in this profession. The cars, the clothes, the houses, the trips are the consequence of the commitment that we can have in our work and this profession until a certain height allowed to ambition a good quality of life.

Even with the dental buzzword it is expensive, it was a profession respected by the population; respect from your medical colleagues is another story. This year marks many levels of reaching the lowest point in dentistry. It is not the excess of professionals that justifies the sorry state to which the art has arrived. The only justification I find is in the social bodies of the OMD. Everything that is happening was predictable, and you and your peers did nothing to prevent it.

When the Competition Authority finished the price list, you did nothing to get around the problem that arose. In due time the guidelines for the various dental treatments should have been created; these guidelines associated with the nomenclature table would allow the manual of good medical practices, with this and with the costs imputed to the accomplishment of each medical act, it would be easy to institute processes for dumping to the agents who notoriously made announcement to clinics near free.

On the other hand, the emergence of dental clinics in commercial spaces should have awakened a glimpse of the future for them and realize that this would be the foreseeable path of some economic groups.

Avoid this situation? Simple, dear sirs. It's called a code of conduct. The existence of a code of conduct for the dental practitioner and the activity of dental medicine would make it possible to regulate the practice of the activity. Furthermore, if they had implemented positive certification of dental clinics in a timely manner, based on the codes of conduct and the law regulating the activity, the fellow clinic owners could apply for this certification to the OMD; this would be a complementary and voluntary process to all the certifications we need. In this certification process, among other things, the conditions given to the colleagues who practice it will be taken into account.

The existence of clinics certified or recommended by OMD would make a difference in the market. It is the role of the Order that you direct regulate the medical-dental activity and is the guarantor of good clinical practices for the population that we serve.
With good service, surely we dentists would also be well, is not it dearer gentlemen?

You are responsible for what have been happening systematically with clinics linked to economic groups, which have had the end that we all know.
You have not fulfilled the role that the State delegates to the Order; regulate and ensure quality medical-dental service to the population.
It's late today. Any action that may be taken will have no effect.

That is why I am ashamed to be a dentist in an order led by you. The announced massive opening of clinics by the country's biggest economic agent embarrasses me, Mr President, and my fellow Members. I do not like to feel compared to a Worten appliance or a travel agency.It embarrasses me that colleagues are joining this and other groups as clinical directors, further reducing the good name that our profession deserves. If you were aware of these situations, today these economic groups would have serious difficulties in hiring clinical directors and it would be impossible to obtain certification from the OMD. You could argue that they could open the clinics, because the general law allows it, but it would not be the same thing.As a dear and illustrious colleague, we are all brothers and sisters, but no dear sirs, I am not the brother of the one who let the profession get there, nor am I the brother of clinical directors who are ultimately responsible for what is happening.It is the market to work, you may argue, but it is a market without any rule entirely your fault. It is this market that will absorb the surplus of dentists, but it only absorbs because you have allowed it; without eggs no omelettes are made, and as many clinics as they can open, if there were regulations these eggs would be very expensive.Lastly, I would like to know whether the more than 100 colleagues on the governing bodies of the OMD, many of whom are in this group, are continuing to review this OMD policy. Do not also have colleagues ashamed of the state we have reached?

Saúde Oral

        

697. Supermarkets with oral medicine consultations (1st part)

The retail unit of Sonae - Sonae MC - wants to reinforce its commitment to health and wellbeing with the opening of 75 dental and aesthetic clinics in the next eight years. The first space Doctor Wells, the name chosen for the network of clinics, was inaugurated this Friday, May 19, at the Colombo Shopping Center in Lisbon.
The first clinic is made up of a team of 25 employees, 15 of whom are physicians. The space includes six medical offices (three dental, two aesthetic and a mixed), a sterilization zone and a waiting room. It operates every day from 9am to midnight, with the possibility of making appointments until 10pm.

The Sonae group wants to open five new clinics later this year, one in Gaia and another in North Shoping, with the remaining locations being studied by the group. By 2018, Sonae wants to open 10 new stores and reach the 75 clinics scattered from north to south of the country. In the area of dentistry, Doctor Well's clinic offers implantology, prosthodontics, orthodontics, dentistry, oral surgery, endodontics, periodontology and oral hygiene services.
The strategy is not just about growing in numbers. The inclusion of other specialties, such as ophthalmology, is being studied as well as the internationalization of the concept in the long term.

During the press conference that took place during the opening of the new clinic, Inês Valadas, Sonae MC manager, said that there is an opening in this market to create a strong brand, not excluding the hypothesis that the growth could go through the acquisition of existing clinics. It was also advanced that one of the strategies of the clinics will go through prices and solutions of accessible payments, as well as agreements with the insurers of the networks Multicare and AdvanceCare.
Beneficiaries of the Well's Health Plan benefit from a direct discount of up to 40% on consultations in the Doctor Well's network, plus a credit of 15% of the amount paid for consultations on Continente Card.

Saúde Oral

696. First Iberian Congress on Preventive and Community Oral Health

https://www.facebook.com/CongressoIberico/

695. Only in Portugal: One million dentist checks left unused

Nearly one-third (27%) of dentists' checks issued since 2008 were not used, according to data published Monday, March 20, by Jornal de Notícias. Of the 4.3 million vouchers launched in the last eight years under the National Program for Oral Health Promotion, there were 1.14 million that were eventually wasted.

Quoted by the newspaper, the president of the Order of Dentists, Orlando Monteiro da Silva, said that it is a shame that the checks are not harnessed to the maximum, stressing that the need exists, but does not always turn into demand. Dentist's checks can be used in private clinics or clinics, and there is no restriction on the area of residence of the user. Pregnant women, elderly people who receive the solidarity supplement and children and young people under the age of 16 are the main beneficiaries of this measure, which a year ago was extended to 18 years if they had already been users.
According to the data provided by the Dental Physicians Association, 69% of the beneficiaries during the past year were children and young people, while pregnant women accounted for 19% of the total of more than 544,000 dentists' checks issued in 2016.

Jornal de Negócios 

* * *

The reality of the facts reveals the oral health policy of the governments in Portugal. By saving 1,140,000 checkers, governments in recent years have saved tens of millions of euros at the expense of oral health of Portuguese children and adolescents. An aberrant and atrocious crime that reflects the real interest of the government and the Directorate General of Health in effectively promoting true oral health for all children and adolescents in Portugal by subtracting more than one million checkers.

The question is simple: how many children and grandchildren of all ministers who have passed through the Ministry of Health and Education, Members of the Parliament or senior officials of the Directorate General of Health in the last ten years did not have access to health care oral? Children and young people without rights are the first to feel the contempt that governments have for oral health. If the rulers had any interest, all the dentist's checks would have been used; unfortunately this is not the interest of the government or the Directorate - General for Health. 

694. March is the month of oral health

To mark World Oral Health Day, which is celebrated on March 20, Colgate, in partnership with the Portuguese Association of Oral Hygienists, will promote the 17th edition of the "Oral Health Mission" during the months of March and April . The objective is to raise awareness of the importance of oral health and the adoption of good oral hygiene practices by promoting the 4 steps: brushing with fluoride toothpaste at least twice a day, use of elixir, use of dental floss and regular visit to the dentist / hygienist.Since the year 2000 Colgate has been promoting this event and in these 17 years more than 130,000 dental check-ups have been offered. This year, the leading brand in oral hygiene has returned to the street, and for more days, the itinerant van that will not only be in Lisbon and Porto, but also in Coimbra, offering free dental check-ups and making personalized advice on the oral habits of oral hygiene professionals. These check-ups will also take place in national hypermarkets, from north to south of the country. There are also the possibility of forty Portuguese people taking advantage of € 100 in dental treatments. To do this, just go to the Colgate website - www.colgate.pt - and participate in the quiz by answering a quiz about oral hygiene.Despite the promotion of this type of awareness campaigns, the studies indicate that there is still a great margin to improve the Portuguese oral health care. An example of this is that oral health professionals recommend changing toothbrushes at least every three months, but Portuguese only buy toothbrushes on average twice a year. Another indicator is the fact that only 36% of Portuguese households have purchased elixirs at least once in a year. As for the child population, recent studies have found that almost half of children between the ages of 2 and 7 do not brush their teeth properly (they do not brush their teeth long enough, they only brush their front teeth), and consequently there is a decrease in their health oral health of Portuguese children, which causes a high incidence of dental caries at these ages.

Calendar Wagon-traveling itinerary Oral Health Mission

LISBON:

     7 / March | C.C. Colombo (main entrance) with the presence of the Ambassador of this edition of the "Oral Health Mission", Carolina Patrocínio.
     8 / March | Luís de Camões Square
     9 / March | Terreiro do Paço
     10 / March | Jumbo Cascais
     11 / March | Gare de Oriente
     12 / March | Small field
     13 / March | Large field

PORTO:

     14 / March | Campaign
     15 / March | São Bento
     16 / March | Rua de Santa Catarina
     17 / March | Av. França (Casa da Música)

COIMBRA:

     18 / March | Republic square
     19 / March | Tollgate
     20 / March | CC Solira Tour (Rua João Deus Ramos)

 shoppingspirit

693. Oral health care will be extended to all users of the National Health Service (SNS)

Less than a year later, the Government will expand the pilot experience of having dentists in primary care. A rule published Wednesday by the Directorate-General for Health said that oral health care will no longer be guaranteed only to the most vulnerable and to include all users of the units that are part of the experimental group.
In the 13 health centers of Alentejo (Montemor-o-Novo and Portel) and the Region of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo (Monte da Caparica, Moita, Fatima, Salvaterra de Magos, Cartaxo, Rio Maior, Azambuja, Alenquer, Arruda dos Vinhos , Lourinhã and Mafra-Ericeira), all registered users can now access the dentist. The consultation is requested by the family doctor.
Last year, when the pilot project began, oral health care was limited to the most vulnerable users. In case, with diabetes, cancer, heart or respiratory disease, kidney failure or transplanted. In all, 3396 patients were referred to the dentist and 5316 oral health consultations were performed.
The provision of dental care in health centers, which excludes all aesthetic interventions, will continue to be evaluated for possible extension to all primary care units of the National Health Service (SNS) and thus to the entire population. The absence of dentists in the state health services has always been referred to as one of the weaknesses of the SNS.

Expresso

692. Private entities: 80% charge for fictitious oral medicine services

At 58, prosecutor Leonor Furtado is proud of a career dedicated to fighting corruption. He passed through Timor-Leste, the Ministry of Environment, the Court of Auditors, the Council of Europe and the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action. Since 2015, she has been working to find out how many ways the State can be deceived at the expense of diseases: it is an inspector general of health activities, an area where fraud is worth millions.Jornal PÚBLICO - What health frauds that hit you the most?Attorney Leonor Furtado - So much fraud is a citizen who acquires sunglasses for the whole family to apply for ADSE as the case of the doctor who prescribed so many antibiotics to the elderly father that he or she had already killed him or else that was not true. Last year we intervened in oral health and the dental check. I was shocked to find places where the instruments were not disinfected. It was an action that targeted the five largest private entities in the Lisbon region. Even more shocking - and that is where the fraud is - is that in four of them, services never rendered to the State had been invoiced.

JORNAL PÚBLICO

691. BRAGA: Oral health and urbanism mark Economic and Social Council

The meeting of the Economic and Social Council of the Municipality of Braga was marked by the balance sheet to the municipal project on oral health. The meeting, which took place at the headquarters of the Industrial Association of Minho, also served for the municipality to announce new projects in the area of ​​urbanism.At this meeting, the social partners were presented with a report on the project "Braga a Sorrir - Oral Health Support Center", said the source, adding that the indicators related to the implementation of this innovative project [are] frankly positive.The figures for the measure launched by the Municipality of Braga, which benefit the populations in situations of socio-economic vulnerability, show that, since 2015, 1281 beneficiaries of the project have been covered. In all, 9 598 treatments were performed, 7,914 consultations were performed and 252 prostheses were donated.Those responsible for the project also distributed 2 387 folders and brushes, and the services involved a group of 17 volunteers.

Diário do Minho

690. PORTUGAL: Most adolescents do not use dental checks

Since its launch in 2008, the dental checks program has already reached about two and a half million people. But according to the Público newspaper, which cites data from the OMD, in the younger population the program has not yet had a major impact, with only 38% of 16 year-olds reporting that they used these checks and 43% of 18-year-olds.According to the head of the Dentists Association, Orlando Monteiro da Silva, the condition may be that, in both groups, the checks must be issued by the health centers, at the request of the interested party or at the initiative of the physician. family. As this extension of the program to these two age groups has been little publicized, there are still few users.According to data from the OMD, between January and September 2016, about 227 thousand people used the dental checks, an utilization rate of 83%. Children and young people aged 7, 10 and 13 are the ones who enjoy the most of this possibility (92% of the total).

Saude Oral SO 

* * *

ORAL HEALTH has already proven that the dental check does not meet the needs of the country 's children and youth. The news reports that young people with access to the dental check are very small, and only children with 7, 10 and 13 years old can have access to oral health care. Governments change, promises arise but competent entities do not respond to the needs of the overwhelming majority of children and young people.

Portugal remains a country where official entities continue to deny access to oral health care to the majority of children and young people, with the convenience of multiple stakeholders who persist in failing to solve the problem.

689. fifteen thousand children learn good oral hygiene practices

Colgate has just launched a new edition of the Healthy Smiles, Bright Futures School Program, in collaboration with the Mundo a Sorrir association, reaching some fifteen thousand children enrolled in Portugal, in order to provide the necessary tools to create good oral health habits.In Portugal, for the edition of this project, Colgate established a partnership with the World to Smile - Association of Portuguese Solidary Dental Doctors - to support two of its social projects, among the most disadvantaged communities: the project Learn to Be Healthy whose objective is to improve the oral hygiene and feeding habits of the children of the 1st cycle of schooling. To this end, daily dental brushing is implemented in schools, after lunch, in a classroom context, supervised by the teacher; and the Doctor Risadas project, aimed at children from 3 to 16 years of age, who were proven to be in need and supported by social solidarity institutions.

DESTAK

688. SNS: Charter of Principles of Dental Medicine

http://www.jada.pt/uploads/2/8/7/2/28726561/carta_de_principios_da_medicina_denta%CC%81ria_no_sns.pdf

687. JADA

https://translate.google.pt/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=pt-PT&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jada.pt%2F&edit-text=

686. LISBON: Homeless will have dental appointments

The approximately 800 people who live on the street and who receive support from the Lisbon City Council will now have oral health care. In the first stage, a screening will be done, and then the necessary dental interventions will be performed.For the realization of the program Sorrir não Custa, this Thursday was signed, in the City Hall of Lisbon, a protocol between the autarchy and the person in charge of the project. The program is expected to start later this month, said Mário Almeida, head of the Municipal Homeless Program. The aim is to consult the entire homeless population of the capital.Paulo Varela, a dentist and clinical director of Sorrir não Custa, said many people complain that they do not go to job interviews because their teeth are not in good condition. To reverse this situation, the project aims to identify people who need help, educate them on oral hygiene and treat them through dental implants whenever possible.In order to reach the entire homeless population of the capital, the project will count on the support of the Lisbon Center for Homeless Planning and Intervention (NPISA), in an articulated work with the street technical teams, explained the coordinator of the nucleus, João Marrano.The Councilor for Social Rights of the municipality, João Afonso, said that there is no date for the conclusion of the program. The Chamber will be a facilitator to implement this program, which will not have costs for the municipality, he stressed.
Correio da Manhã

685. Dentists doctors of the National Health Service "no conditions to attend" on the waiting list

Hundreds of thousands of Portuguese users are on the waiting list for consultation of Dentistry through the National Health Service (SNS), which has only 58 dentists for all the attendances. The professionals gathered this Saturday in Aveiro, at the 1st National Meeting of Dental Medicine of the SNS, to discuss priorities in care.
The debate was part of an initiative of the Ministry of Health aimed at bringing together several dentists practicing in the SNS, in order to analyze working conditions, forms of access to consultation by users and the interconnection between different levels of care. We seek to create a consensus regarding the type of users to whom priority should be given, because, with the resources that exist, there are no conditions to meet all, said the member of the organization of the event, José Farias Bulhosa.

The difficulties in accessing the consultation are felt all over the country: in Baixo Vouga, for example, there are 380 thousand users on the waiting list and in Lisbon, there are doctors with 200 thousand potential users waiting for it.
With regard to professionals, there are only 18 dentists in the continent, 11 in Madeira and 29 in the Azores, all without a clinical career, since the State considers them to be senior administrative technicians.
The size of the request for oral pathology is not a type of consultation where it is done for the first time, and the patient is discharged. Sometimes it takes scheduling of several queries to handle it, but we can not tell you to come after five years, because the list is quite large, explained Jose Bulhosa.

Many of the users who expect to be in the SNS are people who are economically fragile to access private care. Although there are equipment, these are stopped or underutilized because they do not open spaces for professionals.
Dentists acknowledge the attention given to the subject by the Government. However, they seek to avoid failures already noted in the pilot projects announced for the Alentejo and Tagus Valley. To this end, they intend to have a national and regional coordination carried out by people who have sensitivity to the Dental Medicine, preferably trained in the area, in order to reach the distinct realities of each service.

Last week, the head of the Order of Dentists, Orlando Monteiro da Silva, had already appealed to the opening of vacancies within the public service: In a country with so many deficiencies in access to oral health, it was particularly common sense to take advantage of dentists underemployment, and place them serving the most needy population, within the SNS.
Monteiro da Silva spoke about the document Numbers of the Order 2016, which showed a 4.6% increase in the number of professionals enrolled in the Order, a growth considered much above the needs of the country and the WHO recommendation of a dentist for each two thousand inhabitants.

Jornal Médico  

684. ULS Northeastern dentists in the first national meeting of the specialty

The medical dentists of the Local Health Unit of the Northeast participated, on July 8, in the 1st National Meeting of Dental Medicine at the National Health Service, which took place in Aveiro. This initiative aimed to promote a discussion and analysis of working conditions, forms of access by users, interconnection between different levels of care and sharing of organizational experiences.

In the presentation made at the event, the head of the Dental Medicine at the ULS Nordeste, Dr. Susana Silva (right in the photo), highlighted the work developed in this area in the district of Bragança, at the level of prevention and promotion of Oral Health. The geographic dispersion (the district of Bragança being the 5th largest in the country), associated with the problems of accessibility and the specific conditions of interiority are the main characteristics of the territory served by ULS Nordeste.

In this context, the team, composed of five Dentistry doctors, ensures this valence in all Health Centers in the district of Bragança. The work developed in this specialty is directed to users between the ages of 3 and 16 enrolled in the School Park of the locality associated to each Health Center. The work developed by ULS Nordeste in this area has proved an asset for the Target population and the district, namely the increase in the number of children free of dental caries, reduction in the severity of dental caries, greater personalization in contact with the user, easier access to consultation and improvement of Public Health.

Following the communication, the ULS Nordeste team was praised by Dr. Manuel Oliveira, member of the Commission for the Reform of Primary Health Care, at the level of his method of work. ULS Nordeste professionals were also invited to participate in the next Congress of Dental Physicians of the SNS of the Archipelago of the Azores, by its responsible Dr. Ricardo Viveiros Cabral.

Unidade Local de Saúde doNordeste, EPE   

683. Dentists seek career in SNS within one year

By day 250 users are having consultations in health centers. There are those who have never been to a dentist for lack of money. The head of the Dental Physicians' Order hopes that within a year the Ministry of Health will have created the career that integrates these professionals into the National Health Service (SNS), giving rules and an equal salary scale for all. The pilot project, created by the Ministry of Health, started at the beginning of the month in 13 health centers in the areas of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and Alentejo. By day, there are 250 users with consultation, paying seven euros of moderating fee.

If the ministry intends to have dentists to practice in the SNS, whether in health centers or hospitals, given the specificity of the profession, it must create a career as a dentist. The commitment to the sustainability of the SNS begins the process. Evaluation of the pilot experience will allow steps to be taken in this direction. I hope it will be there in a year, said Dr. Orlando Monteiro da Silva, a member of the Dentistry Department.
The issue has already been discussed with the ministry and the Order, it is fundamental that the future career guarantee the independence of the dentist, continuing education, teamwork, suitability of services, equal pay grids for all that reference the gross salary of a doctor Senior assistant. The reference of the 13 new dentists of the SNS is the career of technician of superior health, with a gross salary to be around the 1500 euros. But the few who were already in the SNS receive less.
The president of the dental doctors' order believes that this is a historic step and that the trend will be to extend the project. The Ministry of Health explains that the expansion to other health centers is planned, but that the number and approach of the process is dependent on the evaluations that are carried out. The project will be evaluated in several phases, the first in early 2017.

Ana Filipa Neto is the dentist of the Monte da Caparica Family Health Unit, one of the health centers with a pilot project. There is no doubt about the success of the measure. When they arrive at the reception they tell how it went well, that it did not give anything. Some say that it was the first time they went to the dentist because they had no economic conditions, others because they had several complications, and the private clinics did not take care of them for fear, he says.
The users who attend, every day of the week between 8.00 and 18.00, are referenced by family doctors. When the assistant calls them they are very happy and say they have been waiting for this for a long time. The project comes to give oral health care to the chronically ill: people with diabetes, cancer, kidney, respiratory or cardiac diseases.

Ana's work begins with the question if she has complaints or toothaches, an x-ray is made, the diagnosis and the action plan are drawn. A work in partnership with other doctors as cardiologists, when in case of surgery it is necessary to review the medication that the patient already does. Many are excited when I ask if we can start treatment at the first appointment. We feel every day that we are helping people, she recalls, recalling one of the stories that has affected her the most: A woman in her 50s, who had several health problems, had radiation therapy, can never go to the dentist for lack Conditions. I had an infection, we treated the teeth on the left side. I wanted to prescribe acetaminophen and told me it was not worth it because I could not afford it.For the medical dentist, it makes sense to extend this offer to the entire population in the future. You need to integrate more dentists. If that happens, I'm very happy. It is not just patients at risk who need care. It's the whole population, he says.

Ana Maia

Diário de Notícias

 

 

682. Oral Health Group PT (FaceBook)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/376006582519771/

681. FaceBook Oral Health

https://www.facebook.com/saude.oral.7

680. ESPOSENDE: Partnership guarantees oral health care for children and young people in need of the municipality

The Local Social Action Council (CLAS) of Esposende has established a partnership with the Clínica Senhora da Saúde, Esposende, in order to guarantee oral health support for children and young people from poor families in the municipality.

The protocol for the operationalization of the + Oral Health project was formalized last 12, by the President of CLAS and Mayor of Esposende, Benjamim Pereira, and Technical Director of the Clinic, Thierry Zão da Silva.

This project is part of the intervention of the Esposende Social Shop and aims to respond to the fragile economic situation of some families, especially in access to oral health services, such as screenings and medical-dental treatments.Clínica Senhora da Saúde undertakes to receive and attend monthly, free of charge, up to three children or young people under the age of 18, referenced and sent through the Social Store and who are in a situation of proven socioeconomic deficiency.This partnership reflects, on the one hand, the unique dynamics of the Social Store in the search for and diversification of responses to the most vulnerable population of the county and, on the other hand, reflects the social responsibility of Clínica Senhora da Saúde and its concern to ensure health services To children and young people whose households do not have the financial capacity to provide care. An example that may be followed by other entities / companies that want to join the Social Store in improving the living conditions of the population.
Correio do Minho