Dentistry

How to improve the competence and skills of dentists to identify and support victims of domestic violence

European Conference on Dental Health

July 20-21, 2022 | Webinar

Bettina Pfleiderer

University of Muenster, Germany

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Dentistry

Abstract:

Domestic violence (DV) is an important public health topic with one of three women experiencing DV at least once during their lifetime. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of domestic violence (DV) cases have increased due to quarantine measures. Therefore it is most important to identify victims of DV in the health sector. Dentists are also frontline responders to DV; they do not only treat DV victims with dental injuries, but they also have the opportunity to screen for the presence of DV when seing patients at regular check-ups. In a recent review (1), we could show that dentists are neither trained adequately nor do most feel competent enough to ask victims about DV or support them as needed. There is a lack of training, because DV is often not taught at dentistry schools at all. In this talk we will provide information on how to identifiy victims of DV, how to respond to victims after disclosure of DV and recommendations on how to improve competences and skills of dentists in DV. (1)Bregulla, J.L.; Hanisch, M.; Pfleiderer, B. Dentists’ Competence and Knowledge on Domestic Violence and How to Improve It—A Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 4361. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074361

Biography :

Prof. Dr. Bettina Pfleiderer works as associate professor and head of the research group cognition & gender at the clinic of Radiology of the university hospital Muenster of the medical faculty of the Westfalian Wilhelm-University Muenster in Germany. She is a known expert in the field of domestic violence and medical education since many years and is lecturing on domestic violence globally. She and her research team developed the IMPRODOVA training platform on DV for the health care sector, police and social sector (www.training.improdova.edu) and piloted a course for medical students based on the materials of this platform as part of an EU project tackling DV and improving inter professional collaboration.