Continuing education: profile of the dentists who worked in a private company of S o Paulo in 2008

Objective: The objective of this study was to verify the continuing education activities profile of dentists who worked in a private company of S o Paulo State in 2008. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional and analytic study was carried out, using a self-administered questionnaire distributed to dentists who worked in the company’s units located in different cities of S o Paulo State. The research project was submitted to and approved by the Ethical Committee of the School of Dentistry of the University of S o Paulo (FOUSP). Data were organized and analyzed using the STATA 10.0statistical package. Results: One hundred and four dentists participated in the study and all were working in the private company in 2008. Regarding sociodemographic characteristics, 68.04% were female and 31.96% were male, with ages between 25 and 54 years (mean 35.78 years). In relation to professional formation and performance, 64.43% studied in public colleges and 35.57% in private colleges, 116 (59.79%) were specialists, 26 (13.40%) had Masters degree and 10 (5.15%) were PhDs. With regards to access to scientific updates, 79.38% reported having participated in ascientific congress in the last two years, 87.63% had access to scientific journals and 30.41% were members of a scientific society. Conclusion: The professionals used to participate in a variety of continuing education activities, such as scientific congresses, and had access to scientific journals and specialization courses, although few of them have Masters degree or PhD.