Background: To conceptualize dental model of public health surveillance, and test the surveillance strategy to produce useful and reliable information to evaluate the disease behavior. Methods: Use of a prioritization matrix (Modified Cendes OPS and focus group method), with experts and a descriptive retrospective study an institutional active search (IAS) in a primary unit generating data (PUGD) in Bogotá city with data provided in 2009. Results: The experts prioritized remarkable events such as early childhood dental caries, dental fluorosis, lip and palate fissures, as well as malignant and non-malignant lesions. The IAS found that patients from the PUDG (n= 3536) were between 26,7 years SD± 16,39; 52,7% were women and 47,3% were men, 79,5% of patients were diagnosed with dental caries, 7,9% were diagnosed with pulp disease y 5,5% with gingival; 50 % of people diagnosed were presumptive, 49,9% were new y 0,1% were repeated. Conclusions: The results of prioritization regarding dental caries were similar with the models from Mexico and Bogotá. Based on the results, a mixed surveillance system is suggested with an active component for lip and palate fissure, a passive one for dental caries fluorosis, malignant and pre-malignant lesions, and a habitually transverse for all the events by using (IAS). The test of the strategy showed the compatibility with national surveillance system. Finally, it proved the problems of filling in the registers, which also reveals presumptive diagnosis lacking of coherence with the odontological assistance. The results are applied only for the population studied.
