[Communitary dentisitry: a strategy to promote dental health]

Since its beginnings Dentistry has endevoured to mitigate the consequences of dental diseases. Human resources and materiales invested to reverse their profile have been significant indeed; however, in Latin America results at epidemiological level have proved to be insufficient. These results are indicative of strategies that the Public Health Authorities as well as Institutions in charge of Professional Training should implement in order to approach and solve the problems caused by oral pathologies. One of these strategies is the introduction of Community Health Programs, which promote dental health through organized community efforts, in which Health Community groups, Family gropus, and Dental Professionals take part. Community Dentistry means Community Health Dentistry. Preventive care and assistance is directed to all the members of the community, healthy or ill. This form of dental practice is based on the belief that the individual patient is the community itself. This simple concept makes the difference which develops methods and sets actions for the Dental Professionals to accomplish their goals.