[Primary healthcare and the construction of meanings of oral health: a social constructionist interpretation of discourses of the elderly].
Dentistry currently reveals itself to be open to new ideas about the construction of meanings for oral health. This openness leads to the social production of health revealing the contextualization of the social and historical aspects of the sundry knowledge in the development of oral health for different communities. With this research, we seek to build meanings for oral health with a group of elderly people. With this objective in mind, we propose an approximation between discourses on oral health mentioned by the elderly and the Social Constructionist discourse. We interviewed 14 elderly people enrolled in a Family Health Unit in Ribeirão Preto, State of São Paulo, in the first semester of 2010, and identified two interpretative repertoires through Discourse Analysis, which showed the relationship between 1 - Lack of information and dental assistance in childhood, and 2 - Primary Health Care building the meaning of oral health. We concluded that Social Constructionism works epistemologically for the construction of meanings for oral health and that primary health is essential for appreciation and health care that enables the construction of meanings in oral health by the elderly that create conditions for self-care and healthy attitudes.
Faculdade de Odontologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. alefavbulg@yahoo.com
Alexandre Favero
AF
Bulgarelli
Ione Carvalho
IC
Pinto
Carla Guanaes
CG
Lorenzi
Teresa Cristina Scatena
TC
Villa
Soraya Fernandes
SF
Mestriner
Rosalina Carvalho da
RC
Silva
D000368:Aged; D001938:Brazil; D006801:Humans; D009909:Oral Health; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012961:Sociology