The debate around academic education includes nowadays the professional profile provided by the University. In the same sense, this article approaches the necessary review of the programs for formation of professionals in the Brazilian schools of odontology. This formation must have a direct interface with the real necessities of the population in terms of oral health and has to be inserted in the paradigm of the National Public Health Policy and the principles of the National Unified Health System (SUS-Sistema Único de Saúde). In order to reach this goal, teaching skills and educational concepts must be reviewed for allowing students to be active agents of their formation, with a critical perspective of their own professional practice.
Higher education in odontology; Teaching in odontology; Oral health