Continued education on oral health for early childhood education teachers: current context and importance of preventive odontology

Abstract

This article discuss the importance of continuing education in oral health for teachers of Early Childhood Education through an integrative literature review, carried out by searching for articles in the bibliographic databases BIREME, PubMed and SciELO, using the descriptors “Continuing education in oral health”; “Oral health education in childhood” and “Oral health education for teachers”, published in the last ten years, in Portuguese, Spanish or English. The revised literature demonstrated that teachers, if trained, can become multiplying agents in the promotion of oral health. However, there is a predominance of educators who do not recognize the relevance of their participation in this area due to: absence of the theme during graduation; lack of training and support materials; scarcity of educational programs focused on oral health in schools. Therefore, it is necessary to unite dentistry and education in the school environment to improve children's oral health.