The dental practitioner's role in protecting children from abuse. 1. The child protection system

The last British Dental Journal article on child protection was in 1986. Since then there have been major changes in both legislation and approaches to child protection. A local authority child protection specialist and a consultant in paediatric dentistry outline the development of child protection and the dental practitioner's role in the inter-agency child protection system in this, the first of three inter-related articles.