Exploring professionalization among Brazilian oral health technicians

An oral health technician (OHT) is a dental auxiliary in Brazil. As with other auxiliary categories, they emerged in order to streamline dental work, increase productivity, increase quality and contribute toward scientific-technological development and changes in healthcare practices. The incorporation of these workers into health care services has allowed for an increase in patient coverage as well as changes in human resources in healthcare services [1].OHTs are fundamental to the promotion of oral health as well as the prevention of and treatment of oral health diseases in both the public and private sectors on both the individual and population levels [2,3].In Brazil, OHTs are part of the oral health team present in the “Family Health Team”, which was established with the consolidation of the public healthcare system [4]. These teams conduct their work based on the following principles: universality, equity and integrality [5] established by the Brazilian public healthcare system. The teams underlie the organizational strategy for healthcare services in Brazil [6]. There is a relatively international consensus on the advantage of public healthcare systems based on primary health care [7].Despite the importance of OHTs, it was only in 2008 that a Brazilian federal Law 11.889 was enacted [8]. This Law has historical importance for OHTs.The professional identity of OHTs (previously referred to as “dental hygiene technicians” - DHTs) remained compromised throughout much of the long history of the consolidation of this occupation in Brazil. As long as the activities of a particular worker are not regulated by legal devices, an open profile is associated with that type of worker, i.e. it is exempt from the principles that might establish an ideal professional position to be filled. In this case, any person could occupy the functions. According to the Brazilian constitutional principle regarding the free exercise of labour, trade or profession [9], a person need only m