Dama M A, Shqair A Q, Azevedo M S, Al-Batayneh O B
Department of Dental Sciences, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Arab American University, Ramallah, Palestine.
Department of Social and Preventive Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil.
Eur Arch Paediatr Dent. 2025 Jun 3. doi: 10.1007/s40368-025-01056-z.
Given the prevalence of physical abuse toward the head and face, dental care settings are frequently the first point of contact for victims of violence. Dentists, like other medical practitioners, have a primary responsibility to safeguard patient health and life, hence they can be crucial in identifying and reporting violent victims. Therefore, this study was directed to assess the attitudes and perceptions of Palestinian dentists regarding child abuse and to investigate professional characteristics associated with the identification of suspected child abuse.
A questionnaire was sent to the 745 dentists of Palestine and 380 (51.0%) were returned. Demographic data, profiles of dentists, information regarding their knowledge and attitudes concerning child abuse, and the obstacles that may stop them from reporting abuse cases were collected. Descriptive analysis was performed, and associations were tested by chi-square and Fisher's exact tests.
Most dentists were general practitioners (88.9%), nine of whom were boarded paediatric dentists. 217 (58.2%) considered themselves fit to identify signs of abuse even so, 93.5% do not report the abuse cases. A statistically higher proportion of specialist dentists, working in the public sector, having more practice and who have children had suspected cases of child abuse.
Although dentists considered themselves able to identify cases of child maltreatment, a high proportion of them do not report the abuse cases, this is related to many factors, such as less experience, little information, no training, and less confidence to report child abuse. Improved training in forensic and legal dentistry is needed, together with the establishment of detection and reporting protocols.
鉴于头部和面部遭受身体虐待的情况普遍存在，牙科护理机构常常是暴力受害者的首个接触点。与其他医疗从业者一样，牙医肩负着保障患者健康和生命的首要责任，因此他们在识别和报告暴力受害者方面可能至关重要。所以，本研究旨在评估巴勒斯坦牙医对虐待儿童的态度和看法，并调查与识别疑似虐待儿童相关的专业特征。
向巴勒斯坦的745名牙医发放了问卷，回收380份（51.0%）。收集了人口统计学数据、牙医简介、他们关于虐待儿童的知识和态度信息，以及可能阻碍他们报告虐待案件的障碍。进行了描述性分析，并通过卡方检验和费舍尔精确检验来检验相关性。
大多数牙医是全科医生（88.9%），其中9名是注册儿科牙医。217名（58.2%）认为自己适合识别虐待迹象，即便如此，93.5%的人并未报告虐待案件。在公共部门工作、从业经验更丰富且有孩子的专科牙医中，怀疑存在虐待儿童案件的比例在统计学上更高。
尽管牙医认为自己能够识别虐待儿童的案例，但其中很大一部分人并未报告这些虐待案件，这与许多因素有关，比如经验不足、信息匮乏、缺乏培训以及报告虐待儿童的信心不足。需要加强法医和法律牙科方面的培训，同时建立检测和报告协议。
