Conhecimento de cirurgiões-dentistas sobre a identificação de maus-tratos infantis: uma revisão integrativa

Abstract

Violence against children is defined as any act that may harm their physical or psychological well-being. Thus, since the main injuries resulting from child abuse are found in the head and neck region, the dental surgeon should be able to diagnose these injuries. The aim of this study was to review the existing scientific literature on the knowledge of dental surgeons in identifying and reporting cases of child abuse. The articles were selected from the Medline (PubMed), Scopus, Lilacs, Embase and Web of Sciences databases. The search strategy “Pediatric Dentistry” AND “Child abuse” AND “Physical abuse” AND “Violence” was applied, aided by the Boolean operator AND. The inclusion criteria were primary studies without language restrictions, with freely accessible texts, published in the last 15 years (2011 to 2025). Literature reviews of any kind, theses and dissertations, editorials and case reports were excluded, leaving a total of 6 articles selected. The results show that even though many professionals recognize that they are legally responsible for identifying cases of abuse, they still find it difficult to make this diagnosis. Regarding the reporting of injuries, the studies show that professionals do not report cases for fear of reprisal or being harmed. It is therefore essential to set up training courses in this area.