This paper is part of a doctoral thesis on dentists' work within the family health strategy in Florianópolis, SC, Brazil, which analyses their day-to-day activities based on their perceptions. The paper discusses how these routines give potential to and/or limit the material attainment of the proposals of the strategy, regarding its guidelines and presuppositions. A representative of the municipal administration and 17 dentists, divided among the five health districts, were interviewed. The potentials and limits pointed out by the interviewees were grouped into three categories: the perspective of the professionals and their social role; the perspective of work within healthcare units; and the perspective of policy administration within the municipality. It was concluded that identifying these potentials and limits made it possible to discern the way forward, to give shape to the new model and overcome the difficulties in constructing health awareness among workers, managers and users.
Dental care; Family Health Program; Brazilian Unified Health System