The dentist’s role in recognizing childhood abuses: study on the dental health of children victims of abuse and witnesses to violence

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ABSTRACT

Aim

Up to today, little attention and training has been paid, in the Italian dental field, to a dramatically widespread
problem, childhood abuse and neglect (CAN). Our research fits into a current of thought on alerting physicians, not only
paediatricians, to the problem of abused children. Violence is often part of neglect and carelessness toward children, and it
often also concerns their personal hygiene and health care. Aim of our study was to verify the hypothesis that dental
neglect, intended as a specific form of neglect, is often associated to other types of neglect, and therefore it could represent
an important sign in indentifying childhood abuse and neglect situations. These were investigated through the comparison
between a group of children with psychological disorder and a control group, as far as their dental health is concerned. Our
results indicate that the abused children show: a significantly higher dental plaque index (p=.02); a higher gingival
inflammation (p =.2); a higher number of untreated decays (p=.004); more evidences of neglect (p = .0002). Additionally, the
abused subjects were less cooperative during dental visits (p=.0005). Our data support the hypothesis that the abused
children in our group are, both under the hygiene point of view and access to treatment, more neglected by their
caregivers.

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