Insights about Child Abuse among Dentists in Tamilnadu Ahmed M A Adil1, Anu V1, Parthasarathy Shruthi2,*, Devi Saravana S2, Eveangelin Sophia C2, Shalini ST2 1Reader, Department of Public Health Dentistry 2BDS, Sathyabama Dental College and Hospital, Chennai *Corresponding Author: Dr. Shruthi Parthasarathy, BDS, Sathyabama Dental College and Hospital, Jeppiar Nagar, OMR, Chennai. Email Address: drshruthi185@gmail.com, Contact No: +919445778385
Online published on 8 August, 2019. Abstract Aim The aim of the study is to assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Dental Practitioners regarding child abuse. Materials and Method A pre-tested questionnaire containing 19 closed ended questions was distributed who had atleast one year of clinical experience. Data collection was carried out by direct interview with the dentist and the collected data was entered in the Windows Microsoft excel sheet. Descriptive statistics and Chi square test was carried out. Level of significance was set as 0.05. Result The study showed that 57 percent of dentists are seeing around 1 to 10 patient below17 years per week. 10 percent of dentists investigated child abuse patients themselves. 28 percent of them had contacted a doctor, colleague, dental association or children's hospital if they suspected a case and 59 percent of dentist are uncertain about diagnosing child abuse. Conclusion Detecting and treating child abuse is a benefit not only to the child but also for the society. Thus it should become mandatory that the dentists are trained to recognize it, so that more cases would be diagnosed and reported by the dental profession. Top Keywords Child abuse, Dentists, knowledge. Top |