Child Protection and the Dental team

The most important thing to remember if you are faced with a child who may have been abused is that you do not need to manage this on your own. It is also important to remember that your first duty is to the child and that you have the responsibility for dealing with any injury or dental needs. No child should be left untreated or in pain because of underlying concerns about abuse.

The Department of Health poster, ‘What To Do If You’re Worried A Child Is Being Abused: a flow chart for referral’(see below)²⁶ summarises how you should proceed. This forms the basis for our summary flow chart, Child Protection and the Dental Team: flow chart for action.

What to Do If You're Worried A Child Is Being Abused: a flow chart for referral small preview image

Reproduced with permission of the Department of Health

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Colleagues to consult

The first stage if you have any concerns should always be to discuss this with an appropriate colleague or someone else you can trust. This may be an experienced dentist, a senior dental nurse, a paediatrician, child protection nurse or a social worker (see Finding your local contacts). In the salaried primary dental care services close working relationships often exist with health visitors and school nurses, some of whom are highly experienced in child protection and may be a source of helpful advice.