Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

With more than one hundred years of history, the division of labor in dentistry is a process that is affected by distinct and sometimes opposing principles: professional (social) and administrative (technical/economic). The circumstances created by the historical dynamics of these recursively contending principles redefine the possibilities of their operation. In Brazil today, the inordinate number of dentistry surgeons in the dentistry field has created anomalies in the professionalization process in Brazil, as well as ineffectiveness and unfairness in the rationalization process and expansion of the division of labor (team work) in the Public Health System (SUS), particularly with regards to the basic health care provided by the Family Health Strategy, and the perpetuation of interpretative disputes around normative instruments in the legal system, such as law no. 11,889/2008, which governs the professions of buccal health technician and buccal health assistant. All of these are crucial elements for the future of the organization of the buccal health sector of basic health care, as well as the future disposition of the work force in the epidemiological transition process that is currently underway in the country.

This study analyzes the trajectory of professional proposals defined in the guidelines of course curricula for Dentistry in Brazil, until the implementation of new national curricula directives. The current situation of courses that have adopted such directives and the adhesion to Pró-Saúde is also analyzed, with formation service guidelines. This curriculum proposal for collective health content for the Dentistry Course at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, its constructive logic, the theoretical and practical activities, the experience of students and professors in the Public Health System (SUS), work periods and distribution in the course curriculum are also all analyzed. The proposal is presented as an innovative alternative whose differential is synthesized in the concept of instructing students with a concept of collective health that comes before the formation of any traditionally taught dentistry-centered concepts, thus bringing students closer to a custom of collective health.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the concepts that guide the practices of health promotion by professionals at a family health unit in the city of João Pessoa, state of Paraíba, Brazil. A qualitative survey was carried out, with interview techniques and participatory observations, involving semi-structured interviews and field diaries. Data was collected between April and May, 2010. The key participants were six members of a health promotion management commission and another two professionals, recommended by the commission, thus totaling eight interviewees. The interviews and the field diaries were analyzed based on the discourse analysis method. The analysis categories were concepts of health promotion, knowledge of the National Health Promotion Policy and health promotion initiatives, from planning to execution. Documents from international conferences on health promotion and the National Health Promotion Policy were all used as theoretical references. The interviewees proved to have an extensive knowledge of health care, which directly influenced their concept of health promotion; however, there is incoherence between the discourse and the practice. This study is expected to contribute to a reflection on the health promotion activities undertaken by these professionals.

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The investigation regarding the quality of life of science teachers and the search for improvements that ameliorate these professionals' performance in primary education schools can be a way to reduce inequalities in education in Brazil and help teachers progress, not only from the educational but also from the social viewpoint. This study aimed to analyze indicators of physical and mental quality of life among science teachers in a public school located in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The information that was assessed included the demographic, economic, occupational and domestic characteristics, data on physical exertion and health, on mental health conditions, as well as the medical diagnoses most frequently mentioned by the teachers ever since they started working in the profession. The teachers brought up several complaints about their health and quality of life, such as nervousness; hoarseness; back, arm and leg pain; and tingling and swelling in the legs. It was concluded that knowledge of this evidence may contribute to preparing measures for the systematic reorganization of the work and directly influence the teachers' quality of life, affording them better performance in the activity of educating.