A preliminary assessment of a framework for the allocation of comprehensive primary dental services

Abstract

Background: The author of this dissertation has developed a first version of a Dental Resource Allocation Framework (DRAF). The aim of the DRAF is to help improve equity of access to primary dental services by providing health teams and managers of the Brazilian Family Health Programme with a tool to guide the allocation human resources according to primary dental care needs, and therefore to assist them to meet the Family Health Programme targets for improving equity of access to its services. The DRAF comprises three inter-related components: a diagnostic classification tool, a timeframe for primary dental services, and dental team members of the Brazilian Family Health Programme. Aim: The aim of this study was to produce a preliminary assessment of the DRAF by determining its face validity, testing reliability and usability of its diagnostic classification tool, and to produce a set of preliminary recommendations on the viability of the DRAF before it is released for use within the Family Health Programme. Method: Primary care dentists assisted with the preliminary assessment of the DRAF. They participated in three assessment phases. Phase 1 involved distributing the first version of DRAF to dentists for them to determine its face validity in three sessions of consensus group. Across the three sessions, they made changes within each component of the DRAF until a second version was produced at the end of the third session. Phase 2 involved providing dentists with calibration training on the diagnostic classifications and then applying the 5-level diagnostic classification tool by performing clinical examinations in a sample of the Family Health Programme users.