title: Child maltreatment - prevalence and characteristics of mandatory reports from dental professionals to the social services.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dental professionals are required to report suspicions of child maltreatment to the social services. As yet, no studies assess the prevalence of these mandated reports from dental care services or their content.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study investigates the prevalence and characteristics of mandated reports from dental professionals to the social services. Furthermore, it analyses associations between dental professionals reporting suspicions of maltreatment with such reports from other sources.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study collected dental mandatory reports from within one municipality of Sweden during 2008-2014. The material consisted of a total of 147 reports by dental professionals regarding 111 children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total prevalence of reports from dental care services to the social services was 1.5 per 1000 children with a significant increase between 2008 and 2011 (P < 0.001). The primary cause for a report concerned parental deficiencies in care (n = 93) and secondly, a concern for dental neglect (n = 52) (P < 0.001). Among all reports, 86% involved children with prior contacts with the social services.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reports to the social services from dental care services on suspicions of child maltreatment concern parental deficiencies (failure to attend appointments) and neglect (dental neglect). Mandated reports from dental care services often co-occur with other mandated reports.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Medicine, Division of Paediatric Dentistry, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.
authors.forename: Therese
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kvist
authors.affiliation: Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Madeleine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cocozza
authors.affiliation: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.|Centre for Clinical Research Sörmland, Uppsala University, Eskilstuna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Eva-Maria
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Annerbäck
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Medicine, Division of Paediatric Dentistry, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dahllöf
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003710:Demography; D003815:Dentists; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D019221:Mandatory Reporting; D015995:Prevalence; D012947:Social Work; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology