Disparidades regionais no uso dos serviços públicos de saúde bucal no Brasil

Aim: To estimate and compare annual rates of dental care attendance in Primary Health Care (PHC) from 2018 to 2022 across Brazilian regions. Methods: A nationwide ecological study utilized secondary data from the Health Information System for Primary Care to calculate the indicator “rate of dentist attendance per registered population” for Brazilian regions and the country. Indicators were calculated annually from 2018 to 2023. Ratios between rates were calculated to estimate relative disparities of the indicator among Brazilian regions, assuming the region with the highest rates as reference. All analyses were performed using Microsoft Excel®. Results: Dentists performed annually between 36 to 112 attendances per 1000 registered users in PHC. Between 2018 and 2023, the highest rates of dentist attendance in PHC were in the Northeast region and the lowest in the South and Southeast regions. There was a similar pattern of stability (2018-2019), decline (2019-2020), and increase (2020-2023) in the rate for all regions of the country during the analyzed period. Conclusion: The study revealed disparities in rates of dentist attendance per registered population in PHC across Brazilian regions. There was a decrease in rates from 2019 to 2020 followed by an increase until 2023.