Dimensions of oral health services access in printed media

Abstract

The information disseminated by the media con tribute to create the population representation about the Health Unified System (SUS). This study aimed to analyze the publication of the theme "ac cess to oral health services" in the print media of the Espírito Santo (ES), Brazil. We used a qualita tive and documental approach to analyze the news on the access to oral health services disseminated between March 2004 and June 2009 in the two main newspapers of Espírito Santo, Brazil (A Gazeta and A Tribuna). To select the materials we used the keywords "Dentist", "Dentistry" and "Oral Health". Of the 392 news found, 121 were about "access to oral health services". We selected 41 pieces for this analysis according to the rules of completeness, representativeness, consistency and relevance. The thematic content analysis of the data was performed according to the following categories: "availability", "acceptability" and "affordability". Most part of the news published was about dental services provided for free by municipalities, colleges, churches and Masonic actions. We observed more attention given to public dental health policies in 2004, addressing access to dental treatment and to fluoridated water, and also noticed frequent disclosure about the avail ability of oral health services, emphasizing thus the problems of public sector and supplementary health insurance as an alternative to address its inefficien cies. Few pieces addressed acceptability. We consid ered that, despite the considerable dissemination of information by the media on the period of our study, it is essential that the press problematizes access to oral health services in its dimensions.