Awareness, Attitude and Behavior of Dentists Towards Domestic Violence Victim Patients

Abstract

Background: Domestic violence is referred as shadow pandemic because it is seen globally. Domestic violence abuse is usually considered a problem that requires involvement of police or social services and not a problem that requires dental interference, but it is important to take under consideration that other services may even not be approached by the victim due to various reasons6. However, they may approach a dentist for facial trauma.Hence it is important to understand awareness, attitude and behaviour of dentists towards domestic violence victim patients.Materials and Methods: in this cross-sectional study, a self- administered, structured questionnaire was sent to dentists practicing in central India. Collected data were subjected to statistical analysis using Chi-square test, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Result: Mostly dentists were aware about and have heard about domestic violence in practice. As many as 37.6% dentist have encountered domestic violence victims in their practice but only 11.7% participants took any measures to record or report or refer DV victimsConclusion: As dental professionals are usually the first line of contact for patient with head and neck trauma,they would need to undergo special training to identify, support, and treat domestic violence patients.