Enhancing the Dental Professional's Responsiveness Towards Domestic Violence; A Cross-Sectional Study

Dentists may be the first health care professionals to treat patients who have experienced Oro-facial trauma resulting from Domestic violence (DV). Hence, as a national health concern, it challenges the social responsibility of a dentist in bringing down its prevalence.

To assess the knowledge of Domestic violence among dentists of Karnataka.

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among dentists of Karnataka to know their knowledge, its relation to dentistry and measures they practice to bring down the prevalence of DV victims.

Overall knowledge about DV was very less among the dentists & out of 64% who said the dentist has a role in bringing down the prevalence, 28% reported the need for training.

Based on analysis of the data, dentists were interested and would benefit from additional education opportunities concerning recognizing, referring and managing patients who may be the victim of domestic violence in order to enhance their role.