Competências gerais e habilidades específicas: a realidade do ciclo básico

Training in Dentistry has, over the years, undergoing significant changes. The last major change was the construction and implementation of the National Curriculum Guidelines (DCN) in 2002 for undergraduate courses. In order to form dental surgeons endowed with knowledge and critical, reflective and humanistic thoughts, DCN is to guide the training for any job market. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate and discuss the curricular structure of the first four periods of the Dental course at Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte regarding  general and specific skills proposed by DCN. The categorization of specific skills based on general skills was conducted. Then, on the basis of these categories,  the  moments  in the early years they were developed. Unlike previously thought, the first half of the course, considered "basic cycle" which includes common disciplines to all health courses, works important elements of DCN and also brings the perspective of permanent education, one of the general competencies for the future professional. It was concluded that the “basic cycle” of Dental School at UFRN includes all general and specific skills proposed by DCN for the dental course.