Universidade Federal do Ceará
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Odontologia

• Institutional:

Some laboratories already established in the UFC are also used by students of PPGO. The close relationship between PPGO and the Department of Physics, with emphasis on the Raman Scattering Laboratory and X-Rays Laboratory must be highlighted. Another successful intra-institutional partnership was established between faculties working with photodynamic therapy and Bioinorganic Group of the Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry. Also we can highlight the partnerships with the Post Graduate Program in Pharmacology. All these partnerships are measured using the direct generation of scientific articles published by teachers and students together in journals of significant impact factor, as listed below:

• • The effect of diode laser irradiation on dentin as a preventive measure against dental erosion: an in vitro study. de-Melo MA, Passos VF, Alves JJ, Barros EB, Santiago SL, Rodrigues LK. Lasers Med Sci. 2010 Nov 2. (Instituto de Física)
  • In vitro photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy in dentine contaminated by cariogenic bacteria. Melo MAS, de-Paula DM, Lima JPM, Borges FMC, Steiner-Oliveira C, Nobre-Dos-Santos M, Zanin ICJ, Barros EB, Rodrigues LKA. Laser Physics, v. 6, 2010. (Instituto de Física)
  • Clinical and surgical treatment of a rare lingual cyst in a 12-year-old girl. Soares EC, Fonteles CS, Costa FW, Alves AP, Nogueira AS. Quintessence Int. 2011 Jun;42(6):479-82. (Odontologia Sobral)
  • Dose-response evaluation of a novel essential oil against Mutans streptococci in vivo. Lobo PL, Fonteles CS, de Carvalho CB, do Nascimento DF, da Cruz Fonseca SG, Jamacaru FV, de Moraes ME. Phytomedicine. 2011 May 15;18(7):551-6. Epub 2010 Nov 26. (Programa de Farmacologia – Medicina)
  • Heme oxygenase/carbon monoxide-biliverdin pathway may be involved in the antinociceptive activity of etoricoxib, a selective COX-2 inhibitor. Grangeiro NM, Aguiar JA, Chaves HV, Silva AA, Lima V, Benevides NM, Brito GA, da Graça JR, Bezerra MM. Pharmacol Rep. 2011 Jan-Feb;63(1):112-9. (Medicina Sobral, Odontologia Sobral, Medicina e Bioquímica)
  • Assessment of the oral and maxillofacial surgery service in a teaching hospital in Brazil. Ferraro Bezerra M, Avelar RL, de Oliveira RB, Studart-Soares EC, Pretto MS. J Craniofac Surg. 2011 Jan;22(1):50-3. (Hospital universitário Walter Cantideo)
  • The antimicrobial activity of photodynamic therapy against Streptococcus mutans using different photosensitizers Rolim JP, de-Melo MA, Guedes SF, Albuquerque-Filho FB, de Souza JR, Nogueira NA, Zanin IC, Rodrigues LK. J Photochem Photobiol B. 2012 Jan 5;106:40-6. Epub 2011 Oct 19. (Grupo de Bioinorgânica)

• State and National Public Institutions:
• The national institutional partnerships began to be established with the approval of two proposals to a CAPES grant of the National Academic Cooperation Program – PROCAD, providing to the program the participation in a national network of academic cooperation in the 2008/2011 period, being one with UNICAMP, UFPel and UFMA and the other with UNICAMP, UFMG and UFG with a local coordination of the faculties Lidiany Karla Azevedo Rodrigues and Sergio Lima Santiago, respectively. PPGO was also contemplated in the CAPES grant of the National Program of Academic Cooperation / New Frontiers – PROCAD/NF (2009-2012) with the São Paulo State University Julio de Mesquita Filho – UNESP Araraquara under coordination of the faculty Rodrigo Otavio Citó César Rêgo. The faculty Lidiany Karla Azevedo Rodrigues performed a post-doctoral training at the State University of Campinas UNICAMP/ Dentistry Faculty of Piracicaba from January to June/2010, with scholarship from PROCAD / CAPES, under the supervision of faculty Jaime Aparecido Cury. Additionally, PROCAD projects enabled the visit to the UFC for teaching assignments of great scientific merit of teachers such as: Jaime Cury, Altair Del Bel Cury, Livia Maria Andaló Tenuta and Brenda Regina Gomes from FOP-UNICAMP and Maximiliano Cenci and Evandro Piva from UFPel. Five students also conducted master or PhD sandwich courses for training in methodologies not completely dominated by PPGO faculty.

• Additionally, two grants Casadinho/CNPq performed with FOP/UNICAMP, approved in 2006 and 2008 by faculties groups of the Program, propitiated funding to research leading to many products to the participating institutions, in addition to enable the autonomy of PPGO regarding to laboratory facilities. The approval of the grant PRÓ-ENSINO NA SAÚDE/CAPES (2010) entitled “Development of general and specific skills in various teaching-learning scenarios of Medical, Dentistry and Nursing students: current situation of the curriculum, implementation and evaluation of active methods”, being coordinated in the field of Dentistry by the faculty Maria Eneide Leitão de Almeida characterizes a partnership within the Health education at UFC providing the systematically development of studies on the curricula of undergraduate courses, in relation to the development of general and specific skills related to the use of active methodologies in teaching-learning process in various scenarios of primary, secondary and tertiary care.
• The solidary cooperations or actions with other state institutions of Ceará are characterized mainly in four aspects:
  • PPGO faculties participate in the PROGRAM OF DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF ORAL CANCER IN CEARÁ STATE: EPIDEMIOLOGICAL AND CLINICAL PATHOLOGICAL STUDY which is a multidisciplinary project between the Health Secretary of the Ceará State, Municipal Secretaries of Health, UFC, UNIFOR, ABO/CE, CRO/CE, Santa Casa de Misericórdia, Hospital Batista memorial and Academia Cearense de Odontologia approved by CESAU (State Board of Health) which was initiated in November/2004, coordinated by the faculty of PPGO Fabricio Bitu Sousa. Besides doing a great job of tracking cancer cases throughout the state and capital of Ceará, develops permanent activities to combat oral cancer (preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic activities) including the creation of a stomatology committee in primary care in the city of Fortaleza. To date, over 3,000 patients were examined, being diagnosed more than 250 pre-malignant lesions and 80 malignant tumors. One of the main goals of this work is to enable an interdisciplinary activity between dentistry and medicine, as well as to perform a permanent care program to the patient who has lesions at risk for malignant transformation. Other participating faculties are: Léa Maria Bezerra de Menezes, Maria Eneide Leitão de Almeida and Eduardo Costa Studart Soares. It involves a team of graduate and post-graduate students.
  • PPGO faculties coordinate or participate in numerous extension projects which aimed to expand the assistance to the community, which often can not be assisted directly by the undergraduate course, obtaining services only indirectly through the extension projects, which benefits not only this population, as well as students involved in these activities, which enhance their technical skills as well as become familiar with the reality of the community and develop socio-cultural activities. Examples of these extension projects are CENTRAU, SEMENTE and NEPE. In CENTRAU (Centre for Oral and Dental Trauma) undergraduate students perform clinical procedures on patients with oral and dental trauma under the guidance of the faculty José Jeová Siebra Moreira Neto, coordinator of the project, and post-graduate students. The project has more than 800 registered children. The faculty Cristiane Sá Roriz Fonteles is coordinator of the SEMENTE – Extension Service to Minor Needing Specialized Treatment. The project provides dental care to children with disabilities in Fortaleza, which is still extremely scarce. To date, this service is only offered by the Faculty of Dentistry, Federal University of Ceará, through the SEMENTE project and by the Specialized Center for Dentistry (CEO). The faculty Fabrício Bitu Sousa is coordinator of NEPE Extension Project – where clinical activities of care are developed for adult and children patients with special needs sent by several health centers as Walter Cantideo University Hospital, Cancer Institute of Ceará, HEMOCE and São José Hospital. The faculty Vicente de Paulo Aragão Sabóia is coordinator of SORRIDENTE extension Project, in which six undergraduate students are involved, having one student a extension scholarship from UFC. This project conducts educational seminars in two schools and aims to promote oral health and hygiene in school students. The faculty Ana Paula Negreiros Nunes Alves is tutor of the Tutorial Education Program (PET) funded by MEC-SESU in which twelve scholarship students are involved, developing integrated activities of research, education and extension. The faculty Eduardo Costa Studart Soares also works at the Walter Cantídio University Hospital which coordinates the Residency Program in Buco-Maxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology under the auspices of the Ministries of Health and Education also providing services to the community.
  • Faculties of the PPGO approved and coordinate research projects extremely important to public health in the state of Ceará as the project “Clinical and pathological assessment and epidemiological study, immune-histochemical and molecular premalignant lesions and oral cancer diagnosed in the Strategy Program of the Family Health in Ceará “coordinated by the faculty Ana Paula Negreiros Nunes Alves. The project has FUNCAP PPSUS funding and compares two regional health cells, assessing the impact of social and geographical differences, since one is coastal and another is in the hinterland, in the development of oral cancer. The project involves 9 municipal health secretaries and the state coordination of oral health. In addition to the evaluation of health professionals and agents, biopsies, diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer are performed. For the Unified Health System (SUS) this work means integrated and regionalized technological incorporation in a multicentric network, in the early diagnosis of oral cancer, with physical adequacy of family health teams and specialized dental clinics. Another example of project with PPSUS funding is the project “Dental caries and fluorosis in the school students of the state of Ceara: is it a public health problem?,” coordinated by the faculty Maria Eneide Leitão de Almeida. In the state of Ceará there is a lack of knowledge about the socioeconomic and psychological aspects of dental caries and fluorosis, thus requiring studies beyond the epidemiological aspects to verify if these oral problems can be considered public health problems. Therefore, the project investigates the prevalence, severity, perception, self-perception and relationship with socioeconomic factors of dental caries and fluorosis in school students from 12 to 18 years in cities with different levels of fluoride in water supplies and different population sizes.
  • Another important aspect of cooperation is highlighted by the effective participation, as permanent PPGO faculties, of 4 faculties linked to the Dentistry Course of Sobral Campus at UFC. In addition, our graduate students have been admitted in Dentistry Courses of Federal and Private Universities within the state.

• External Institutions:

The PPGO international cooperations are characterized by recent post-doctoral internships conducted, short stages and Visiting Professor by PPGO teachers, namely:

• • The faculty Cristiane Sá Roriz Fonteles, after her post-doctoral training in 2009, he served as Visiting Professor in Oral Health Research Institute at Indiana School of Dentistryin Indianapolis, Indiana – USA, from January to June/2010. Through this partnership with the Indiana University, the graduate student Thyciana Rodrigues Ribeiro (now permanent faculty of the PPGO) in 2009, was the first PPGO student who participate of the Abroad Doctoral Sandwich, and received a scholarship from a grant from the National Institute of Health. Currently, the faculty Cristiane Fonteles acts as Visiting Professor at the Dell Pediatric Research Institute at the Texas University at Austinconducting studies of genetics and molecular biology at Finnell Birth Defects Research Laboratory.
  • The faculty Sergio Lima Santiago held post-doctoral training at the University of Granadain Granada, Spain, during the months of January and February/2010, with a scholarship from Fundación Carolina (Spain) under the supervision of the faculty Manuel Toledano. Currently, the faculty performs post-doctoral training at the University of British Columbia
  • The faculty Iriana Carla Junqueira Zanin performed post-doctoral training at New York University College of Dentistry in New York – USA during the months of January and February/2010, under the supervision of the faculties Deepak Saxena and Simone Duarte.
  • The faculties Carlos Augusto de Oliveira Fernandes and Vicente de Paulo Aragão Saboia held respectively post-doctoral training at New York University College of Dentistry in New York – USA, and Universita Degli Studi Di Trieste in Trieste, Italy, keeping publications together and partnerships until the present. A student supervised by the faculty Vicente participated in Trieste in the sandwich Doctoral Program of CAPES.
  • The faculty Cauby Maia Chaves Junior held his post-doctoral fellow as CNPq scholarship at the University of North Carolinaat Chapel Hill, USA.
  • It’s worth noting also that national and international post-doctoral stages also led to the arrival of international support professors to teach courses and participate in doctoral and masters banking as the Professor Peter Shellis (editor-in-chief for 10 years of the international journal Caries Research) and the Professor Lorenzo Breschi from the University of Trieste.