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Volume 8 Issue 6 (June, 2020)

Original Articles

Knowledge and Attitude on Child Abuse amongst Practicing Pediatric Dental Surgeons- A Questionnaire Survey
Kirstie Sarah Thomas, Shilpa Sunil Khanna, Sunitha. S, Sasikanth Challari, Sunil Kumar Gulia, Mohammed Hasan Khan

Aim: Purpose of our study was to assess the knowledge of child abuse in pediatric dentists and to evaluate their knowledge to tackle these cases. Methodology: Questionnaire Survey was conducted amongst 62 paediatric dentists over a period of 2 months. The questions were based on their knowledge on identifying various signs and symptoms which is relevant for Child Abuse (CA) diagnosis, as well as management of the same and reporting it to necessary official authorities. Results: Around 77.5% of respondents were confident enough to detect CA in their patients. However, only 45% of them, recorded or documented these signs and symptoms in the specific patient file. Unfortunately, only 34% of them, reported cases of CA to relevant legal authorities as they consider this as a legal hassle. Conclusion: It can be concluded that dentists effectively suspect cases of CA in their clinical practice, but few report such cases. Most common reason for under-reporting is police and authorities involvement, which dentists choose to neglect because of fear and apprehension about the procedures. Key words: Dental neglect, Dentists, Maltreatment, Diagnosis, Child abuse, Child neglect, Child protection.

 
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