736. Private education students are part of the dental check program

According to an order by the Deputy Secretary of State and Health, António Lacerda Sales, published in Diário da República this Monday (May 24), the National Program for the Promotion of Oral Health (PNPSO) now covers all children and young people aged between 7 and 18 years, regardless of the school or institution they attend, as well as a new age group, referring to children who are four years old.
This measure is a positive sign, which demonstrates the Government's will to reverse the inequity that has existed since the creation of the dental check, said Miguel Pavão, president of the OMD. This decision has been demanded by the Order of Dentists over the past few months, which defends a deep restructuring of the program, not only in terms of universal access, but also investment in the preventive component, they say on its website.
For Miguel Pavão, this could be the starting point for reversing and reformulating a program that, since 2008, has wasted more than two million dental checks. The president believes that the dental check should be more preventive and focused on health literacy and behavioral change.
As the OMD advances, Miguel Pavão warns that it is equally urgent to restore the value of checks (which were cut during the troika period and, however, were not replaced) and update them, in order to respond to the increase in costs incurred by dentists and to correspond to the valorization of the medical act.
Order No. 5201/202 defines the update of the PNPSO for the period 2021-2025, which aims to continue the strategies that have been implemented in the context of health promotion, prevention and early treatment of oral diseases. In the case of four-year-old children, referral for oral hygiene consultations in primary health care units is assigned, or up to two dentist checks are assigned. As for the other age groups, access is maintained via the school context.
The updating of the program also foresees, according to the legislation, the reinforcement of actions to promote health and literacy in oral health, carried out by family health teams in pregnancy surveillance, child and youth health and general and family medicine consultations carried out by school health teams, in kindergartens, schools and institutions in the area covered by the health center cluster.

Dental pro