Paediatric dentists' role in child protection practice: Progress over time?

Background: Child maltreatment (abuse and neglect) is a global public health problem. Healthcare professionals must contribute to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children at risk.

Aim: To determine whether paediatric dentists' rates of child protection training, experience and practice have changed and to identify factors currently associated with maltreatment recognition and referral.

Design: A pre-piloted anonymous questionnaire was mailed to the UK-based British Society of Paediatric Dentistry members in 2005 (n = 789) and 2016 (n = 575). Analysis was conducted for practising dentists.

Results: Response rates were 66.3% in 2005 and 62.4% in 2016. Increases were observed in respondents' postgraduate child protection training (87.2% vs. 99.7%), multi-agency training (27.9% vs. 49.2%), ever suspected (67.9% vs. 82.3%) and ever referred child maltreatment (30.7% vs. 61.0%). The proportion who had suspected maltreatment but never referred a child reduced from 37.2% to 21.3%. Having referred more than five times in the preceding five years rose from 0.4% to 14.6% of respondents, yet those seeing children with neglected dentitions daily or more frequently remained unchanged.

Conclusion: This repeated cross-sectional survey demonstrates a substantial improvement in UK paediatric dentists' training and practice, but a gap remains between suspecting and referring maltreatment concerns such that some children remain at risk.