Dentistry, Hospital S. Andrea, Sapienza University of Rome II, School of Medicine, Rome, Italy.
Eur J Paediatr Dent. 2009 Dec;10(4):185-7.
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 identifying 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.
迄今为止，意大利牙科领域几乎没有关注和培训针对一个极其普遍的问题，即儿童虐待和忽视（CAN）。我们的研究符合当前的一种思潮，即提醒医生，不仅是儿科医生，注意受虐待儿童的问题。暴力往往是忽视和对儿童粗心大意的一部分，而且往往也涉及到他们的个人卫生和保健。我们研究的目的是验证以下假设：作为一种特定形式的忽视，牙科忽视常常与其他类型的忽视有关，因此它可能是识别儿童虐待和忽视情况的一个重要标志。我们通过比较一组有心理障碍的儿童和对照组来调查这些情况，就其牙齿健康而言。我们的结果表明，受虐待的儿童表现出：牙菌斑指数显著升高（p=.02）；牙龈炎症更高（p =.2）；未经治疗的龋齿数量更多（p =.004）；更多忽视的证据（p =.0002）。此外，受虐待的儿童在看牙医时合作性较差（p=.0005）。我们的数据支持以下假设：我们组中受虐待的儿童在卫生方面和治疗机会方面都受到照顾者的更多忽视。
