Report on activities of the institutional relations board office in the past 3 years
This report aims to present the activities of the institutional relations board office in the past 3 years mandate.
The mandate of the office is to carry the ADI Brazil Chapter advocacy for oral health professionals and national wide institutions according to the priorities defined by the board of officers. Its purpose is to represent ADI Brazil Chapter in professional institutions as well as nationwide representative institutions such as the Brazilian Federal Congress, City Halls, City Councils, State Legislative assemblies in the federative states of Brazil, and other governmental and voluntary institutions relevant to the organization of the Brazilian society. The purpose of the office is to support the ADI mission of sharing knowledge to serve the dental health needs and to improve the quality of life of people throughout the world. The goal envisioned is to forward ADI advocacy, taking and consolidating the mission of the academy to various sectors of Brazilian society.
THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS OFFICE, INCLUDE
Presence at relevant events to forward the chapter agenda
Support regulatory projects related to the chapter priorities producing advocacy documents
Real-time monitoring of the activities carried out, always planning, acting, and reporting the result, making the necessary corrections to achieve the appropriate result, and considering that this office works on scenario predictions and expectations
Convocation of supporting officers advisors within ADI Brazil membership
Full integration with the other offices, mainly finance and communication.
GOALS SET FOR THE MANDATE 2017–2019
Promote and support legislative and regulatory projects related to the chapter priorities sustaining advocacy documents that help dentistry to achieve the welfare of the population, oral health professionals, and the environment, all concurring for a better world for all
Priority is to support the implementation of the United Nations Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. Projects currently focus in the area of the Minamata treaty, oral health literacy, and good practices for voluntary oral health care
ADI Brazil Chapter advocacy in oral health professional and national wide institutions according to the priorities defined by the board of officers.
THE PRIORITIES FOR THE MANDATE 2017–2019
Priority is given to public policy and sustainability, involving promotion, education, health prevention, and humanization incentive given to less invasive oral procedures at lower cost. Example is the atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) and mercury-free restorations. Mercury is considered the (non-radioactive) most toxic material of our planet, both to humans and environment. The Minamata Convention of which Brazil is a ratifying party committed to phase down all dental amalgam use.
PUBLIC POLICIES AND SUSTAINABILITY
It is our position that all university courses should include to undergraduate candidates correct understanding of their professional duty to defend sustainable policies to their political representatives and parliamentarians. At the political-institutional scene, it is the responsibility of the institutional relations board officer takes these views to city- state and federal deputies and senators.
In 2016, a Bid of Law has been proposed in the City of Rio de Janeiro, to ban the sale and use of mercury in dentistry, as well as mandatory implementation of mercury waste separators and waste destination for amalgam in dental practices. The author, Dr. Rafael Aloísio de Freitas is a city councilor that took advice from the ADI Chapter Brazil institutional relations office and from Prof. Dr. Claúdio Pinheiro Fernandes, President da International Academy Dentistry – Brazil Chapter. In this matter, we have also received valuable support from federal deputy, Alexandre Serfiotis, M.D., a physician who supports our sustainable dentistry without mercury. The Bid of Law final conclusion may take some time to be approved, but an open discussion on the subject for the country, with the participation of civil society stakeholders, city councils, legislatures, and the National Congress, promotes excellent debate.
The prohibition of bulk mercury sales as finally implemented in January 2019, by a regulatory act of the Brazilian National Regulatory Agency for Health Products – ANVISA. The inauguration of the first complete set of amalgam separators in Brazil was also a landmark achieved in late November 2019. Sixty-five dental offices of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Nova Friburgo Institute of Health from the Fluminense Federal University – ISNF/UFF, under the leadership of Professor Dr. Claudio Pinheiro Fernandes. The project is a part of a national collaboration project that engages the Brazilian Association of Dentists – ABCD, the ADI Brazil Chapter, and the Austrian company METASYS.
Our advocacy regarding sustainability in oral health has reached several levels with Brazilian government, including meetings with former state representative, today Senator Flávio Bolsonaro to discuss his law that provides for the permanent participation of dentists in the prevention and control activities of hospital infection prevention in hospitals, nursing homes, maternities, and similar establishments.
In 2020, Dr. Braz Antunes Mattos Neto, presented a Bid of Law that institutes the mandatory occupational examination in the Municipal Public Administration. The Institutional Relations Office of ADI Brazil provided technical support for the counciler together with Dr. Eliete Dominguez Lopez Camanho, Occupational Dentistry Specialist, president of the Technical Chamber of Labor Dentistry of the CRO-SP. If this Bill is approved, it will prevent many oral diseases, especially Oral Cancer, preventing and treating the oral health problems of Brazilians.
The institutional relations office was also actively engaged in the organization of the ADI Brazil Chapter of the 2017, 2018, and 2019 editions of the symposium of sustainable dentistry held with great success, parallel to the International São Paulo Dental Show – CIOSP.
ALTERNATIVE RESTORATIVE MATERIALS
I have taken this subject to the political agenda: Mercury- free dental materials and less invasive procedures. The institutional relations office integrates the study team of the Fluminense Federal University, as an external collaborator, and is kept informed of reports regarding performance of alternative materials, such as glass ionomer cements developed for the ART and other mercury-free restorations such as “alkasites”. Julia da Silva Moreira, presented such techniques during the 23rd event of the Brazilian Group of Restorative Dentistry Professors, representing the UFRJ/ART research group.
SAFE AMALGAM REMOVAL
Concern with dental amalgam is not only at the insertion but also the removal of restorations and not only due to public health and the environment but also the patient, dentist, and office staff. As a specialist in occupational dentistry, we defend maintaining safe working conditions for all dental personnel, protecting workers’ health, and the environment.
We collaborated in the promotion of safe amalgam removal courses with, Dr. Olympio Faissol Pinto M.Sc., a worldrenowned professional, pioneer of Oral Reahabilitation in Brazil, with more than 50 years’ experience with mercury- free Dentistry in Brazil.
PREVENTIVE HEALTH EDUCATION
The institutional relations office has also participation in campaigns to promote oral health literacy for the first-grade children under the coordination of Prof. Dr. Liana Bastos Freitas-Fernandes, DDS, MDSc, PhD, FADI, and collaborators. Also, participated in projects to raise awareness of lips cancer prevention in the city of Santos – SP, promoted by the mayor Paulo Alexandre Barbosa, Dr. Braz Antunes Mattos Neto os a city councilor, with the participation of the Dr. Regina Baptista DDS, chief of SEAPREV, and Prof. Dr. Caio Roman Torres, DDS, MSCs, PHD from the Dental School of UNIMES and students.
