Trauma-Informed Care Practice for Dental Practitioners: A Scoping Review

Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a patient care framework that recognises the widespread impact of trauma. While the likelihood of dental practitioners encountering patients with trauma is significant, there is limited guidance on TIC in dental care, highlighting the need for a clearer understanding. This scoping review was conducted to synthesise the literature to date concerning TIC practice for dental practitioners.

A search across six electronic databases and a manual search were conducted to find literatures from January 1992 to September 2025 that met inclusion criteria following the Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. Of 176 identified papers, 27 papers informed this review.

Identified TIC practices were categorised and synthesised according to 'the four R's' of TIC, such as safety and trust and other additional recurring TIC themes. This scoping review synthesised key concepts of TIC with the aim of informing clinical practice for dental practitioners.

The review highlights core TIC themes in the literature and identifies priorities for future research. As trauma is pervasive and often undisclosed, TIC practice by dental practitioners is recommended as a universal precaution approach in all patient care.