Regulation of Dental Consultations in Primary Health Care and Performance of Services in Dental Speciality Centers

Objective This study analyzed the regulation of dental specialty centers (CEOs) coordinated exclusively by Primary Health Care (PHC) in four primary outcomes: access and dental consultation, reception services, bonding and responsibility, and social participation. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out using secondary data from the National Program for the Improvement of Access and Quality of Dental Specialty Centers (PMAQ-CEO): second cycle, using multilevel logistic regression to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and individual covariates. Results The analytical sample consisted of 9,599 CEO users who had completed all the variables analyzed. Of these, 63.5% were referred to the CEO by PHC. Dental care regulated by PHC was related to better access (OR 1.36, CI 95% 1.10–1.68), better reception (OR 1.33, CI 95% 1.03–1.71), better bonding and responsibility (OR 1.36, CI 95% 0.91–2.04), and social participation (OR 1.13, CI 95% 0.93–1.35) compared to those not regulated by primary health care as the exclusive pathway. Conclusion The regulation of access to the CEO coordinated by PHC presented the best performance. It is suggested that this form of PHC regulation, as a route for dental specialty centers, can be established in the national oral health care policy for better service performance.