Resumen

CARRILLO TARASCIO, Daphne Y  y  ROMERO UZCATEGUI, Yajaira C. Evaluación de calidad de la atención odontológica de los servicios de salud adscritos a la Corporación Merideña de Salud en el Municipio Libertador del Estado Mérida. 2005. Acta odontol. venez [online]. 2007, vol.45, n.2, pp.198-203. ISSN 0001-6365.

Currently, Venezuela’s government is achieving some actions intending to diminish the effects of the economic and social crisis. In order to reach real changes in the health profile it is needed to improve the quality of the service starting from the participation of the community. This research intended to evaluate the quality of the service in dentistry offered by public services centers. This is a descriptive study by objectives, with a mixed approach within a non experimental, transactional design. The sample was randomly select. Among the findings it is highlighted that dental attention is limited to dental surgery, operational dentistry and  periodonties. None endodontical treatment is performed and the only solutions for patients suffering from pulp pathologies is dental extraction. The assessment of the services is limited to the reports of activities without  the participations of a external evaluator. Such a report is not enough to evaluate the quality of the service. The findings reveal a complete mismatch between the dental service and the organizations from the community. The participations of the people is limited to specific actions, without an organic link to the main organizations. The improvement of the quality of the health services requires the incorporations of the management model that allows to articulate the needs of the people in terms of dental attention with the performance of the personnel, the offer of the service and the continuous evaluation. That evaluation will let to measure the impact of the assistance of dental services in the profile of dental health of the population.

Palabras clave : quality of dental service; evaluations of quality; dental attention.