The Use of Technologies for Teaching Dentistry in Brazil: Reflections from an Integrative Review

Abstract

This article is an integrative review regarding the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for teaching Dentistry. Thus, the article aimed to analyze papers that show the use of these technologies as resources and tools for learning. The stages in the elaboration of this integrative review were: establishing the guiding question and aims of the study, establishing the inclusion and exclusion criteria for articles, defining the research instrument and information to be extracted from the articles selected, results analysis, and discussion. For this, bibliographical data was collected from the SciELO, ColecionaSUS, and Periódicos CAPES databases in the search for articles published in the last five years, written in Portuguese, and containing the following keywords in Health Sciences: “education in dentistry”, “dentistry”, “dentistry informatics”, “distance learning”, and “education”, and which were related in context to the topic of study. Eleven articles were selected as the results, which were analyzed using the data collection instrument. It was concluded that the current technologies used as teaching resources and tools contribute as allies for improving ways of teaching and learning, particularly in the area of dentistry, in a way that makes courses more interactive and dynamic, and adding personal and technical skills to the profiles of the professionals trained.