Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Dentists at Military Hospitals Regarding Child Abuse and Neglect.

Children are considered to be more vulnerable than other society members because of their young age and lack of adequate skills. The annual report of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) stated that a number of children have lost their lives as a result of maltreatment and violence.

Child abuse is a meaningful problem that exists among different cultural and socio-economic groups. Child abuse includes several conditions that threaten and harms lives of children. It is considered to be one of the largest causes of pediatric mortality.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines CAN as 'Every kind of physical, sexual, emotional abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, commercial or other exploitation resulting in actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development, or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power'.

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) defined dental neglect, as 'willful failure of a parent or guardian to seek and follow through with whatever treatment is necessary to ensure a level of oral health essential for adequate chewing function and freedom from pain and infection'.

The Child Abuse Committee of the Council on Clinical Affairs developed that definition and it was approved in 1983.

In West and Central Africa, children are susceptible to various hazards since birth including human trafficking, child labor, child marriage, conflict and other emergencies.

Frequently, abusive injuries comprise the face and oral cavity thus, dental providers may be the first to encounter these injuries. Many surveys revealed that 50 -77% of child abuse cases involving head and neck regions, consequently placing oral health care workers in an important position to detect, diagnose, document, and report to convenient authorities.

As approximately 50% of injuries due to child abuse occur in head and neck region, medical and dental professionals are in a good position for early detection and diagnosis of physical child abuse. Almost 15% of child abuse related injuries are confined to the head region Therefore, dentists have a significant role in improving the status of abused children and saving them from their dire situation.

Research has shown that guardians or parents who abuse their children regularly change their child's physicians, but very rarely change their dentists, thus dentists are considered to be in the most ideal position for detection of physical abuse in children. The American Dental Association reported the first documented evidence of dentists failing to report child maltreatment in 1967, declaring that none of 416 reported cases of child abuse was reported by a dentist in New York State.

In Egypt, few studies have discussed the problem of child abuse. Cases in most of these studies were collected from emergency, clinical departments, social welfare, criminal records or autopsies. Child abuse among Egyptian primary-school children was studied in 1994 and 1999. No data were collected regarding the prevalence of abuse among older preparatory-school and secondary school children.

Also few data are available about the knowledge, attitudes and practices of primary health care professionals toward prevention and treatment of childhood unintentional injuries.