Potential effectiveness of strategies to promote oral health in primary health care: comparative study among Brazilian capitals and regions.

Objective: To evaluate the potential effectiveness of strategies of Oral Health Promotion (OHP), which are carried out by teams in primary health care (PHC) in Brazilian capitals and regions. Methods: A sample of 1,848 dentists were interviewed (1,819 valid responses) working in the PHC of 26 capitals and the Federal District. The Effectiveness of the Assessment Tool for the Promotion of Oral Health Strategies was used. It is composed of 23 indicators grouped into three dimensions: oral health, health public policies, and human and social development. The answers were arranged in a Likert scale (1-5), and the final score obtained for each sample unit can range from 23 to 115. Higher score values indicate greater potential for the strategy to promote oral health. Results: Statistically significant differences were identified among the analyzed geopopulation units considering the study object. The Southeast and South regions had better performance for the OHP strategies in comparison to the other regions of Brazil (p ≤ 0.01). Conclusions: The OHP strategies identified in the study were heterogeneous, with better results favoring the Southeast regions, with disadvantages for people living in capitals from the Central-North-Northeast of Brazil. Efforts should be undertaken aiming to qualify the PHC teams, especially for those in disadvantageous regions. Therefore, an alignment of PSB strategies to the principles and values of health promotion is required, addressed to the social health determinants (SHDs) and in order to fight the inequalities in oral health.