Organization of the state dental service in Ukraine: historiographical analysis

Abstract

Background. The historical chronology of the creation of the state system of dental care organization in Ukraine reveals the first steps of formation and further development of dentistry as an integral part of scientific and clinical medicine. In 1920, a fundamentally new organizational and economic model of dental care with state funding was introduced in Ukraine, which provided for the coverage of the entire population of the country. The long history is the best basis for the analysis of the passed evolutionary way of dental care development in Ukraine. Objective: to study the historiography of dentistry formation as an independent discipline of scientific and clinical medicine, organization of the state dental service in Ukraine based on the results of research of archival materials of normative-legal documents. Materials and methods. Materials of the main archival documents of the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv for 1919–1920 were studied and analyzed. The materials of the study were the main normative-legal documents regulating dental care: Order of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the Ukrainian SSR No. 3 dated April 5, 1920 “On the organization of dental sections at the provincial health departments”; Order of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the Ukrainian SSR No. 4 dated April 10, 1920 “On the organization of state dental care”; instructions to paragraph 2 of the Order of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the Ukrainian SSR No. 4 dated April 10, 1920 “On state dental care”; instruction “On the issues of the decision of dentistry in state outpatient clinics” approved by the People’s Commissariat of Health of the Ukrainian SSR on April 13, 1920; “Plan for the organization of dental care provision to the population of Ukraine” approved by the People’s Commissariat of Health of the Ukrainian SSR on June 26, 1920. The research methods were the historical one, which involves the study of the creation, formation and development of objects in chronological order; and historical-critical one, which involves the extraction of reliable information from historical sources, the reconstruction of historical facts in order to study the history of events. Results. On the basis of archival materials of normative-legal documents of the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv, a historical-critical analysis of the creation of the state system of dental service organization in Ukraine for 1919–1920 was conducted. The orders, directives and instructions approved by People’s Commissariat of Health of the Ukraine reveal the first steps in building and implementing a new organizational and economic model of dental care. The created healthcare system was based on the provision of social medical dental care by the state to every citizen of Ukraine. Conclusions. Historiographical analysis of normative-legal documents reveals the formation of dentistry as an integral part of highly qualified medical care. The introduced new organizational and economic model of providing social dental care to the population of Ukraine was based on the principles of gratuitousness, availability, proficiency, integration and prevention of dental diseases. Dental care for the population of Ukraine included the construction of a network system of state outpatient clinics, dental departments as a part of multidisciplinary clinics, dental departments and offices in hospitals, which were subordinated to the provincial odontological subdepartments and the People’s Commissariat of Health of the Ukrainian SSR. The new model of state regulation was grounded on the planning and control of the provision of social dental care on the basis of state funding. The main tasks of the created healthcare system were the introduction of organizational measures aimed at mass coverage of free dental care for the citizens of Ukraine. An important area of dental care was the creation of school offices for the prevention of dental di-seases of the oral cavity in organized children’s groups.