Regulation of dental consultations in primary health care and performance of services in Dental Speciality Centers

Objective: This study analyzed the regulation of dental specialty centers (CEOs) coordinated exclusively by Primary Health Care (PHC) in four primary outcomes: access and dental consultation, reception services, bonding and responsibility, and social participation. Methods: : A cross-sectional study was carried out using secondary data from the National Program for the Improvement of Access and Quality of Dental Specialty Centers (PMAQ-CEO): second cycle, using multilevel logistic regression to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and individual covariates. Results: : The analytical sample consisted of 9,599 CEO users who had completed all the variables analyzed. Of these, 63.5% were referred to the CEO by PHC. Dental care regulated by PHC was related to better access (OR 1.36, CI 95% 1.10-1.68), better reception (OR 1.33, CI 95% 1.03-1.71), better bonding and responsibility (OR 1.36, CI 95% 0.91-2.04), and social participation (OR 1.13, CI 95% 0.93-1.35) compared to those not regulated by primary health care as the exclusive pathway. Conclusion: The regulation of access to the CEO coordinated by PHC presented the best performance. It is suggested that this form of PHC regulation, as a route for dental specialty centers, can be established in the national oral health care policy for better service performance.