Knowledge of child protection is essential in everyday practice for the whole dental team as they are well placed to take part in the shared responsibility of protecting children. Physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse and emotional abuse may all present to the dental team in various ways. This article aims to provide some top tips for general dental practitioners who have concerns regarding possible child abuse/neglect and remind them of what observations to make and what questions to ask themselves when they are concerned about a child's welfare.
Clinical Relevance: Abuse and neglect are areas in child protection that the dental team can provide important information about to the local child protection team. All members of the dental team need to be aware of the signs and symptoms of child abuse/neglect and where to go for help.
Article
The aim of this article is to provide some ‘top tips’ for GDPs when it comes to dealing with child protection. This is an issue which naturally causes anxiety among GDPs, yet is essential in everyday general dental practice, whether children are seen directly or adult patients, who may have contact with children at home or elsewhere, have issues associated with a child's welfare. The whole dental team needs to know how to respond in the case of a child protection concern.
The dental team is well placed to take part in the shared responsibility of protecting children. The reasons for this include:1
Dental professionals may observe the signs of abuse or neglect, or hear something that causes them concern about a child. Studies in the UK have consistently shown disparity between the numbers of dental professionals who suspect the need for child protection services versus those who actually refer these cases.2,3,4 However, dealing with child protection concerns is never a task that the dental team faces alone. Advice and support is always available from experienced child protection professionals.
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