Contributing to ultimately offering quality oral health care to all Brazilians.

The construction of a democratic, universal and integrated health service for the entire Brazilian population is one of the key principles of Brazil’s Unified National Health System (SUS Sistema Único de Saúde). Within this perspective, several strategies that include territorial and epidemiology-based planning, health surveillance programs, effective financial management and regulation policies have been implemented since the past decade, under the National Oral Health Policy. However, due to the complexity of the demographic characteristics in our country, there is still a long way to go. Broad and continuous debate, which includes central and local health system managers, healthcare professionals and representatives of the society, needs to be disseminated in order to expedite the incorporation of these important strategies into daily oral health practice. Considering the importance of ongoing debate on the oral health care model, its achievements and its difficulties on a daily practice basis, the Brazilian Association for Oral Health Promotion (ABOPREV Associação Brasileira de Odontologia de Promoção de Saúde) organized a symposium held in Brasília from May 27-29, 2010. Among the topics discussed during the 15th ABOPREV Congress on Oral Health Promotion in a Public and Private Context, we can mention the integration of oral health care into the SUS through the reorganization of the different levels of care, as well as the creation of references in secondary and tertiary care, by establishing Specialized Dental Clinics. In this context, several issues were presented, such as: the rational use of fluoride; the role of health promotion for caries and periodontal disease control; the relation between systemic and periodontal diseases; the importance of early diagnosis and knowledge of risk factors associated with oral cancer; and public policies for oral health. This special issue of the Brazilian Oral Research (BOR) Journal is dedicated to conveying the proceedings of this symposium. The format of the symposium was based on presentations, in which each presenter was asked to review the literature in a certain field. Each session was followed by a structured discussion. At the end of the symposium, a general discussion was also carried out. A short summary of the discussions is presented at the end of this issue. The purpose of this special issue of the BOR is to make the knowledge gained at the symposium available to as large an audience as possible. Tenuta and Cury pointed out the role of fluoride in Dentistry. Some scientific background was given on the current fluoride-related state-ofthe-art to help understand the importance of different forms of fluoride Preface