ABSTRACT: The frequent and common believe that science is to store up verities difficult to be questioned, have led to the error to pressume that research is mainly a methodologic niffer. The purpose of this work is to stimulate a debate for the redefinition of lines of research on different theoretical basis for a dental curriculum. A discussion about the concepts of education, curriculum and science is presented. Also is mentioned how scientific knowledge is handled through the training and daily work of the faculty members that make them to be considered as a critical knot for research. Before to propose another aproach for redefinition of research lines that surpass the one based on positivism and biologism, an analisis of the present situation is made. The proposal includes research lines starting from two different stand points. The first is the nature of the object of dental practice: biomedical, clinic-pathologic and social. The second is the evolution of the dental practice itself: biotechnical, operative, historic, educational and epistemological. Moreover, the university extension and community participation are suggested as possible fields for research.