For now, there are only three, one for each Group of Health Centers in the Algarve – Barlavento, Central and Sotavento. But the goal is that, already in 2018, the number of dentists working in primary health care in the region will increase.
«In an initial phase, ARS Algarve has three dentists and their respective dental assistants at the Barlavento Health Center Group (ACES) in Portimão, at the ACES Central in Faro and at ACES Sotavento in Tavira, with the number of professionals in the area and the number of locations likely to grow during 2018», according to the Regional Health Administration (ARS) of the Algarve.
The three teams entered service today, 13 November, and are part of a contingent recruited nationwide by the National Health Service that will provide 59 health centers in the country with this type of specialist.
“There will be a progressive access to Oral Health Care in Primary Health Care to guarantee the access of people with chronic pathologies to oral health care and to assess the oral health situation of people with the various pathologies defined and followed in the NHS. To date, if there is a need to perform apical x-rays, dentists can already do it because the offices are equipped with intraoral x-ray equipment,” added the ARS.
In health centers, added the same entity, it will be possible to carry out the following procedures: «Dental medicine consultation, emergency consultation, permanent direct restoration in composite resin and cement, extraction of permanent and deciduous and supernumerary teeth, canal filling, scaling , scaling and root planing, periodontal maintenance treatment, gingivoplasty and gingivectomy, drainage and fissure sealing».
Soon, there will be more novelties, as far as the provision of oral health care in health centers is concerned. «From the beginning of December, the NHS do Algarve makes available, for the first time at ACES, a direct digital orthopantomograph for the execution of panoramic radiological images (digital orthopantomography) – previously possible only in the Private Health universe – which are available in the system of ARS Algarve image archives”, according to ARS Algarve.
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