Part 2: abuse

The purpose of this study was to identify the current rate of observing and reporting of child abuse among Massachusetts dentists, determine if there have been changes since a similar 1975 survey, and review possible factors associated with child abuse observation and reporting behaviors.

A web-based questionnaire was emailed to 3,451 members of the Massachusetts Dental Society (MDS). The questionnaire was divided into three parts: demographic information on the dentists and their practices; knowledge and reporting behaviors of child maltreatment; and educational experiences with child maltreatment.

The response rate to the survey was 19.6 percent, with 678 dentists completing the questionnaire. In the year prior to taking the survey, the responding dentists encountered 93 cases suspicious of child abuse, of which 35 cases were considered to be definitive child abuse. Twenty-two percent of the suspicious cases were reported to authorities. Forty-three percent of the definitive cases were reported, which was a significant increase when compared to the 1975 survey. Fewer dentists were seeing and reporting both suspicious and definitive cases of abuse when compared to the 1975 findings, but this may have been the result of the differences in the specialty composition of the two survey samples.

Massachusetts dentists continue to see and report cases of child abuse, but fall short of the legal requirement to report all suspicious or definitive cases. However, when compared to the 1975 survey, a greater percentage of dentists reported cases of child abuse that they believed to be definitive.