Aspectos ético-legais que envolvem a manipulação de dentes humanos extraídos: o olhar de cirurgiões-dentistas

It was intended to investigate the knowledge of dental surgeons about the ethical and legal aspects involved in the handling and disposal of extracted human teeth. A semi-structured questionnaire was used, sent electronically to dental surgeons. The objective questions were analyzed by descriptive statistics and the subjective ones by Collective Subject Discourse. Of the 208 dental surgeons who answered the questionnaire, 78.4% recognized the dental element as an organ, 98.6% stated that they used human teeth for laboratory training and research during graduation and post-graduation, 42.4% obtained these teeth in health units, 28.3% in dental offices, 22% in teaching institution and 2.4% through purchase. Donation by health units and dental offices was signaled as the ideal way to acquire the teeth (72.11%). Although 75.5% claimed to know the specific regulation, this was not reflected in the other questions evaluated. As for the biological risk in handling teeth, 88.9% considered it existed and the qualitative analysis of the answers generated the categories “contamination” and “cross infection”. As for the purpose of the Tooth Bank, 59.6% said they knew it, and categories such as “teaching and research” and “illegal trade” emerged. Despite this knowledge, only 43.3% indicated that they were totally willing to join a tooth bank for donation. It is concluded that there is little knowledge about the ethical-legal aspects involved in the handling and disposal of extracted human teeth and that this unawareness is reflected in the low intention of joining the activities of a future Tooth Bank installed in the researched municipality.