Oral health report recommends additional consultations

A report on oral health in Portugal, published this Thursday, recommends more consultations to reduce by 25% the percentage of users who complained of a lack of consultations in the past year.

The final version of the report, which began being prepared by the working group at the beginning of the year and whose results were presented in July, recommends “a 25% reduction in the percentage of people reporting an unmet need to visit a dentist in the past 12 months, by increasing the response capacity established in National Health Service (NHS), and access to other alternative channels of access to health care.”

The document also recommends that, on average, for every two dental hygiene practices operating in the dental care sector, at least one dentist established in the SNS should be guaranteed on a permanent basis and in a special career in government positions created for this purpose. primary health.

Another goal is to ensure a minimum national ratio of one oral hygienist in the National Health System for every 12 thousand people under 19 years of age (in line with the ratio existing in ARS Lisbon and Vale do Tejo), with possible local and regional variations , taking into account the particularities of each territory in terms of geography, demographics and accessibility, which must be consistent with the national strategy for this purpose.

Complete the construction and renovation of all dental offices planned for SNS under the Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PRR), approximately three hundred nationwide, and achieve a dental office utilization rate of over 75% (an increase of approximately 15%). Other recommendations are to maintain trends in the population eligible to receive assistance.

The final version of the document was presented this Thursday by the Chief Executive of the National Health Service.