Abstract
The number of child abuse cases is increasing rapidly in recent years, and child abuse is a serious issue that should be immediately solved by society as a whole.We visited two child-guidance clinics in Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan, and checked the oral health condition of the abused and non-abused children who had entered the temporary shelters.The rate of the children experiencing dental caries (the dft and DFT ratio) and the rate of the children with untreated teeth (the dt and DT ratio) were higher, and they had experienced more dental caries (the number of dft or DFT) and had more untreated teeth (the number of dt or DT) than children with an ordinary family.Our study shows that it is difficult to judge the existence of abuse for children only by the number of dental caries (dt or DT), but dentists may be able to suspect the maltreatment of children through their bad oral conditions, helping to discover abuse and stopping it at an early stage.
