Resumo

Like other organizations, dental establishments need managerial support to work and provide services. There are studies employing techniques such as economic and financial analyses or process mapping to manage dental establishments. Yet, despite the existing literature reviews in this regard, a large gap in several aspects remains to be reviewed.

What is the current status of researches on business management, strategic management, or production management in dental establishments? What picture of a range of resources and techniques that have been offered to, and practiced in, dental establishments for them to keep functioning can we have? This research aims to gather and analyze what has been published over the last years about production management in the context of dentistry. We sought to build a picture of the current situation in such an interdisciplinary topic to provide a structured overview of it.

We conducted a systematic literature review by reproducing Hofmann and Bosshard’s research method as well as by following suggestions and methods found in the specific literature. Searches were conducted in Web of Science™ database with a period constraint of eleven years (2008-2018).

This research has demonstrated that such intersecting literature is incipient as few studies were published on the theme during the period considered. It also provides a structured overview of the intersection of the two disciplines that allows one to have a picture of the current situation in such an interdisciplinary topic. According to our findings, the priority concern of the analyzed studies is over investigating correlations between establishments’ resources and the generated outputs, which is a common way to check what variables interact with productivity and influence it more strongly.

Patient treatment and dentist’s working time are what demand time the most and influence productivity the most as well. Productivity is commonly measured per patient seen or treatment delivered. However, there is no consensus among scholars and academics on what type of output measurement is better, and some argue that variables such as treatment complexity should be considered for a more qualitative and accurate measurement. Dental management is an incipient field and there is still a long way to go, which makes it fertile for breakthroughs and relevant for future agenda.

Hofmann, E., & Bosshard, J. (2017). Supply chain management and activity-based costing: current status and directions for the future. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 47(8), 712-735. Nery-da-Silva, G., Kawamoto Jr, L. T., Nery, L. A., Kawamoto, W. O., & Sanchini, P. A. (2019). Process mapping in a dental clinic. Revista Interdisciplinar de Estudos em Saúde, 8(1), 71-99. Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A., & Johnston, R. (2015). Administração da produção (4 ed.). São Paulo, Brasil: Atlas.