Percepção do cirurgião-dentista sobre a prática odontológica centrada na pessoa, família e comunidade na atenção primária à saúde de Petrópolis

Abstract

The person-centered care model seeks to provide a holistic approach that involves interpersonal relationships and focuses on individuals and their virtues. In this logic, the Person-Centered Clinical Method emerges, which stands out for presenting an integral and more human conduct. However, despite the evolution of public health policies and the insertion of oral health in the Family Health Strategy, the model of care that prevails in dentistry is still the biomedical one. This paper deals with person-centered approach and aims to know the perception of dentists in Petrópolis-RJ about the dental practice centered on the person, family and community in Primary Health Care. This research is qualitative, conducted through semi-structured interviews with statutory DCs who worked in the Family Health in Petrópolis. From this analysis, four thematic categories were recognized: (1) Identity of the HC in the practice of the FHS. In this category, factors that led these professionals to work in the SUS were verified, what would be the important skills and attitudes, the learnings built in professional training that would need to be structured, in addition to the importance of having a professional profile to work in the Family health strategy; (2) Treating the mouth or person: person-centered care in dental practice. In this category it was highlighted how is the vision of the dentist working in the family health strategy on the perspective of this model. Aspects such as valuing the person in their integrality, understanding how to explore health, disease and perceptions about these experiences, the adequacy of reality to work inserted in the context of the territory, clinical conduct in the work process, the importance of communication skills, the strengthening of relationships between professional and patient, empathy and non-judgment, and the difficulties encountered throughout this process; (3) The impact of working conditions on primary health care. This category highlighted issues related to work infrastructure. The importance of the records in the medical records and their quality were also highlighted, in addition to the difficulties regarding the overload of demand and the prevalence of curative procedures; (4) Learning acquired from family health praxis. This category addressed the humanization of practices and how the learnings in the strategy impacted the work and personal life of the professional, in addition to reinforcing how the mismatch between university education and the demands of the SUS point to the need for integral and holistic education. It was concluded that although there is not enough information regarding person-centered care within dentistry, it was through the routine focused on public health, especially for the Family Health Strategy, that these professionals developed over the years a differentiated care from what they identified having learned in their training, therefore, more studies on the subject would be fundamental. As a product of this work, the following were derived: an orientation guide for dentistry and a proposal of semiology focused on the person-centered approach.