INTRODUCTION: Secondary care in oral health in Brazil is still a little researched topic. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze the resolution of dental services in SUS based on the referral to secondary attention and back-referral to primary attention. METHODOLOGY: It’s a descriptive, quantitative study that used secondary data collected from dental records of patients seen at Centre of Dental Specialties (Ceo) in a city of São Paulo State. RESULT: It was analyzed 1030 dental records. Just 1236 proceedings received referral to Ceo and among then, 86.4% showed the first attendance on Basic Health Unity (UBS) through spontaneous demand and 50.4% (n=623) received referral to endodontic treatment. There was evasion of 2.27% of studied population (n=28) on the first specialized consultation. Among 1208 proceedings that started the treatment in Ceo, 62.6% (n=757) were finalized and received back-referral to primary attention, that finalized 61.1% (n=463) of proceedings. To conclude the treatment, considering the time spent in Ceo and primary attention, there was variation according to specialty: periodontics - 62 days (sd ±68) and endodontics - 71 days (sd ±51.8), requiring 3 consultations in average, regardless specialty. CONCLUSION: The Centre of Dental Specialties gave referral and attention to the majority of demand, regardless specialty. However, there are many cases of evasion during dental treatment, alerting managers to develop methods to entice these patients, reducing service expenses and raising solvability of dental procedures previously initiated.
Specialties dental; unified health system; public health