Processo de trabalho de Equipes de Saúde Bucal em município de médio porte do território do sisal: limites e desafios para a produção do cuidado integral

Abstract

This study analyzed the work process of Oral Health Teams in a medium-sized municipality located in the Sisal Territory of Bahia, Brazil, focusing on conceptions of care, welcoming, comprehensiveness of care, interprofessional collaboration, and Permanent Health Education. This qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with 20 participants (health professionals, service users, and the municipal oral health coordinator) between May and December 2025. The data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. As a technical product resulting from the research, the workshop "Beyond Procedures: Work Process and the Production of Oral Health Care" was developed and implemented, along with an educational leaflet aimed at improving service quality. The findings revealed a contradictory work process, in which efforts to expand comprehensive care coexist with the persistence of the traditional procedure-centered model focused on immediate responses to users' complaints, constrained by structural and institutional weaknesses. Welcoming emerged as a key relational component of care but lacked sufficient institutional support to function as an organizing principle of service delivery. Likewise, comprehensiveness of care was challenged by the tension between meeting immediate demands and ensuring continuity of care. Interprofessional collaboration was found to be partial and episodic, while Permanent Health Education emerged as one of the greatest weaknesses, often being confused with isolated educational activities lacking institutionalization. The study concludes that reorganizing oral health services requires strengthening person-centered care, providing institutional support for welcoming and comprehensiveness of care, and consolidating interprofessional collaboration and Permanent Health Education as key strategies for transforming practices within the Brazilian Unified Health System.