ORAL HEALTH IN THE COMMUNITY MARIA DE NAZARÉ: REFLECTIONS FROM AN EXPERIENCE OF POPULAR EXTENSION

Abstract

This article aimed to report the emergence of the extension project SaBuComu, approaching since activities in a school on the outskirts until the adoption of Freire´s popular education methodology, by means of the inclusion in the project “Educação Popular e Atenção à Saúde da Família“ PEPASF) developed in the Maria de Nazaré community in João Pessoa/ PB. The project was created by a group of dental students that sought the coordination of a teacher to support that idea. Initially, the group performed actions only with PESPASF, however, throughout the time, were systematized independent actions, as follows: educational and preventive activities (ART) in the children day care center and in the elderly group, maintenance visits at homes of families that concluded their dental treatment and epidemiological survey on dental caries in students aged 3 to 12 years old. The SaBuComu offers a rare experience for dental students by exercising humanization and autonomy, besides mixing popular knowledge and academic training, thus contributing to the insertion of differentiated professionals in the society. DESCRIPTORS Community-Institutional Relations. Education. Oral Health.