313 - Detection and Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect: A Survey Amongst Pediatric Dental Care Providers in the United States

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to survey United States licensed orthodontists, pediatric dentists, and dental hygienists in pediatric dental practices to evaluate their knowledge in the detection and reporting of child abuse and neglect (CAN).

Methods: This study has been modeled as a cross sectional- survey based research study. Email invites were sent to licensed dentists (orthodontists and pediatric dentists) and dental hygienists (in pediatric dentists practices) in the United Stated of America through the American Association of Pediatric Dentists (AAPD) and the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) email lists. The survey completion page included sample text and the public survey link for providers to use to send an email invite to dental hygienists. The survey completion page allowed the opportunity for the survey respondents to “copy and paste” the survey letter of invitation to their respective dental hygienists. Responses were entered through REDCap hosted on the VCU servers

Results: A total of 440 respondents participated in the survey. After removing those who indicated they do not treat children, the sample size was 388. There were 236 respondents (86%) who indicated they had reported a suspected incident of CAN. Most correctly identified that dentists in their state are required by law to report both child abuse and neglect (n=309, 80%). However, most were unsure what failure to report suspected child abuse could result in (n=281, 72%). More than a third of respondents were unsure if dentists are granted immunity from liability for reporting suspected CAN in good faith (n=141, 36%), and most would improperly define failure to seek treatment for visually rampant untreated dental caries to be neglect (n=276, 71%), despite the AAPD definition.

Conclusions: It is hypothesized that United States dental specialists (pediatric dentists/orthodontists) and hygienists do not feel adequately trained to detect and report CAN. The results obtained reveal that dental professionals feel they have received sufficient training for recognizing abuse and neglect. Additional training resources and opportunities for dental professionals practicing in the United States is necessary to improve dentists knowledge in identifying neglect and the lawful penalties for failure to report suspected cases of child abuse.