Croatian dentists' knowledge, experience, and attitudes in regard to child abuse and neglect

Abstract

Study showed a lack of knowledge and uncertainty in recognizing and reporting CAN cases in Croatian dentists. They expressed the need for undergraduate and post-graduate continuing education on this issue.

Experience with suspecting child maltreatment in the Norwegian public dental health services, a national survey

“…[23,26,28,31,37] Our findings imply that the PDHP in Norway are in a position to suspect child maltreatment, while deciding how to react to a suspected maltreatment case is challenging. A total of 42.5% of the PDHP reported having sent a report of concern to the CWS during the recent period from 2012 to 2014, with a mean number of 2.7 (SD ¼2.0).…”

“…Previous studies have noted the need for more under-and postgraduate training to increase the knowledge of child maltreatment and reporting among dental health personnel. [22,23,28,31] Norwegian dental educational institutions have included child maltreatment and mandatory reporting in their syllabi within the last decade. Perhaps, this has contributed to the youngest dental personnel having more knowledge, being more aware and suspecting more child maltreatment.…”

“…[21] International studies have shown that dental health personnel do suspect child maltreatment among their patients. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] However, detecting child maltreatment can be difficult, and in relation to oral health, it is hard to determine common features that characterize dental neglect. [18] Dental health personnel find their duty to report challenging and do often fail to report their suspicions to CWS.…”

“…This disparity is in accordance with other studies. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] The challenges dental health personnel experience when suspecting child maltreatment and deciding whether to report to CWS may be related to difficulties making decisions under uncertainty. [32] More specifically, signs of child maltreatment are often unclear and ambiguous and the consequences of reporting to CWS are often unclear.…”

Hidden Behind Dental Trauma: Child Physical Abuse?

“…The studies related to this side of the problem indicate that, for example, dental students do not feel themselves to be sufficiently prepared for their role in diagnosing suspected cases of child abuse [8,9]. Similarly, general dentists report uncertainity and lack of self-confidence in recognizing and reporting child abuse due to their insufficient level of knowledge [10][11][12][13]. However, dentists who have been educated to recognize signs of abuse are five times more likely to make a report than dentists who are not [14].…”