The role of the dental surgeon in the identification and ethical conduct of child abuse

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the ethical and professional importance of students', teachers', and dental professionals' knowledge of child abuse and the ethical conduct of dental surgeons when faced with this situation. This is an integrative literature review, in which a search was carried out in the BVS (Virtual Health Library), PubMed, and SciElo databases, selecting literature review studies, case reports, cross-sectional studies, and systematic reviews, published between 2016 and 2022, in Portuguese, Spanish or English. Of the 1002 articles in the initial search, 35 studies were selected after evaluating the titles, abstracts, and full texts. Only 6 of them indicated that the knowledge of the dental surgeon or dental student was average/sufficient to correctly diagnose child abuse. The most prevalent types of abuse were physical abuse and neglect. The difficulty dental surgeons have in knowing how to act after diagnosing child abuse was identified. Dentists must have the skills and confidence to play their role and protect children. Therefore, this study proposes the development of a booklet for dental students and professionals, covering the guidelines and directives for correctly identifying child abuse and the appropriate ways to report it.