title: Describing the primary care actions of oral health teams in Brazil.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the primary care actions performed by oral health teams (OHTs) that participated in a large national survey led by the Ministry of Health in 2012.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 12,403 dentists from OHTs completed a set of survey questions (response rate = 85.01%) on the organization of care, basic dental procedures and oral health surveillance actions of OHTs. Descriptive and hierarchical cluster analyses were developed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of OHTs (85.2%) reported that they performed "patient welcoming". The delivery of services was based on a patient's identified disease risk (83.1%), and continuity of care was ensured by 85.9% of OHTs. Individual preventive, restorative and surgical procedures were performed by the majority of the teams; however, screening for oral cancer and construction of dental prostheses/dentures occurred less frequently. Cluster 1 was composed of OHTs with the lowest proportion of oral healthcare actions related to oral cancer and dental prostheses/dentures, and the Southeastern and Southern regions had higher proportions of OHTs from cluster 2.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  OHTs adhere to some of the principles of primary care organizations; however, the teams perform fewer actions related to oral cancer treatment and rehabilitation with complete dentures. The geographical distribution of the clusters was unequal in Brazil.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270.901, Brazil. reisclarice@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Clarice Magalhães Rodrigues dos
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Reis
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270.901, Brazil. thomaz@nescon.medicina.ufmg.br.
authors.forename: Antônio Thomaz Gonzaga da
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Matta-Machado
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270.901, Brazil. jhamaral1@gmail.com.
authors.forename: João Henrique Lara do
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Amaral
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270.901, Brazil. mfurquim52@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Marcos Azeredo Furquim
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Werneck
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31270.901, Brazil. maurohenriqueabreu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mauro Henrique Nogueira Guimarães de
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Abreu
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003729:Dental Care / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D003815:Dentists; D006801:Humans; D009909:Oral Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*