Community Dentistry Corresponding author:

Child maltreatment: a survey of dentists in southern Brazil Abstract: Child abuse is a serious public health problem and affects the victims ’ physical and mental health and development. The aims of this study were two-fold: to assess the attitudes and perceptions of dentists regarding child abuse, and to investigate professional characteristics as-sociated with the identification of suspected child abuse. A questionnaire was sent to the 276 dentists of Pelotas, RS, Brazil, and 187 (68.0%) were returned. Demographic characteristics and profiles of the dentists, and information about their knowledge and attitudes regarding child abuse were collected. Descriptive analysis was performed, and associations were tested by chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests. From all dentists sur-veyed, 123 (71.9%) reported providing treatment for children. Most den-tists believed they could detect cases of child abuse (78.7%), but 85.7% had never suspected it. Among those who did suspect, 76.0 % did no