Prevalence of dental neglect and associated risk factors in children and adolescents—A systematic review

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child stated that children have a right to be protected from all forms of negligent treatment, and have a right to enjoy the highest accessible standards of health, irrespective of their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, or any other status. 1 Neglect is defined as the continued failure to provide a child's basic physical, psychological (emotional), medical/ dental, and emotional needs by a caregiver. 2,3 This affects the child's health, survival, growth, and ability to form responsible relationships. 4 In the UK, one in ten children are being neglected and it is predicted that one or two children die each week because of neglect or abuse. 5 | Dental neglectDental neglect (DN) was defined by the American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry as a wilful failure of a

Orofacial signs of child or adolescent maltreatment identified by dentists and dental hygienists: A scoping review

“…The caries findings in this study are based on already established diagnoses of dental neglect or abuse in the various included studies. There is, however, reason to believe that different diagnostic assessments were made to define caries as dental neglect, given the different underlying assessments described in the literature for diagnosing dental neglect 77–79 . It is also important that they distinguish between parental lack of knowledge and neglectful behavior 80 and consider that neglected children are unaware of the neglect 81 .…”

“…There is, however, reason to believe that different diagnostic assessments were made to define caries as dental neglect, given the different underlying assessments described in the literature for diagnosing dental neglect. [77][78][79] It is also important that they distinguish between parental lack of knowledge and neglectful behavior 80 and consider that neglected children are unaware of the neglect. 81 It is also reasonable to suppose that when dentists do not participate in the identification process, intraoral findings are not revealed as thoroughly, and that losing this information may ultimately cause vulnerable children to remain "under the radar."…”

Access to Dental Care for Children and Young People in Care and Care Leavers: A Global Scoping Review

“…The review findings are compatible with those of Marcus et al [86], which highlight the impact of carers' cultural and linguistic diversity on children's access to dental care. Both Khalid et al [87] and Shanthi et al [88] carried out systematic reviews of the prevalence of dental neglect and the factors associated with such neglect in CYP. They not only highlighted the higher risk of dental neglect in care-experienced CYP but also emphasised the impact of this neglect on the personal and social lives of children and the need for policies to support improved reporting of this kind of neglect by dental professionals.…”

Recognising Child Abuse and Neglect in the Dental Practice: An Overview for Malaysian Practitioners

“…Despite having access to dental care, many children have a high frequency of caries that are often left untreated considered as dental neglect (Wulaerhan et al, 2014;Kim et al, 2017). A systematic review of prevalence of dental neglect and associated risk factors in children and adolescents revealed a high frequency of DN and untreated caries from 34% to 56% (Khalid et al, 2022). The results cannot be generalised globally due to under-reporting of dental neglect and only a small number of included studies (Khalid et al, 2022).…”