A Study of Bulgarian Dental Practitioners? Knowledge about Child Abuse and Neglect

Child abuse is internationally disseminated phenomenon and it is a significant public health problem. It concerns all sectors of society, regardless of ethnicity, culture and socio-economic status. Dental practitioners are obliged to report suspicions of child abuse and neglect along with related documents. Unfortunately a small number of dental practitioners report child abuse cases. The aim of this research is to determine the knowledge of Bulgarian dental practitioners about child abuse and neglect and their willingness to participate in reporting. Materials and methods. The object of the study are 265 dental practitioners from several Bulgarian regions. They fill a direct anonymous questionnaire containing 15 questions. Results and discussion. Results show that every second dental practitioner with over 20 years of professional experience has had suspicious cases /49.2 %/, but only 5, 7 % of them report about them. The most common reason is Lack of knowledge on reporting process /40.4 %/. More than half of the questioned practitioners /54, 3 %/ consider themselves not being relevantly informed on detecting the signs of abuse. Conclusion. The fact that only a small number of practitioners have reported the case is quite provocative and still there are quite overwhelming reprimands. Most participants confirm the need for additional training.