Contributions of General Systems Theory to Dental Management

Abstract

Von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory (GST) was, at the time, a contribution to scientific development and, in particular, to the social sciences in different fields. From this perspective, this study aimed to describe the theoretical contributions of GST to dentistry, analyzing its contributions to organizational management in general and its specific application in the field of dental health. To this end, a qualitative descriptive study with a documentary-bibliographic design was carried out, based on a search and selection of information in academic databases. A hermeneutic-interpretative analysis was developed, structured into three categories: Fundamentals of GTS, contributions to organizational management, and application to health/dentistry. The results indicate that STS is a benchmark in administrative sciences and the study of organizations, as it transformed the epistemological postulates on the construction of knowledge and the notion of systems, leading to the consideration of organizations as living, open organisms in constant interrelation. In the field of dentistry, they provide a theoretical framework that redefines dental management at the clinical-care level by explaining the interrelationship of the human body's systems to analyze the stomatognathic system, the recognition of all its components, and the interconnection between them; and at the organizational level, understanding dental clinics as open systems with their internal and external relationships. TGS stands as a theoretical framework of interest to contemporary dentistry. Its adoption drives a change of model from fragmented practice to comprehensive and systemic management, in order to develop a dentistry that responds to the complexity of current health challenges.