Dentofacial injuries and domestic abuse

Abstract

Ovid, Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, LILACS, CENTRAL, bibliographies of identified RCTs, Current Controlled Trials, domestic violence organisations, handsearching of a number of articles. This is an update of a review reported in 2004. Randomised controlled trials in any language that included adults (persons >16 years of age) presenting with facial or dental injuries to dental or healthcare settings. Eligible interventions were: referral to support services or screening for domestic violence. Eligible outcomes were: frequency of physical assault by self-report, severity of injury by self-report and proportion of victims of domestic violence detected by self-report. Two reviewers screened potential reports and would have data extracted had suitable RCTs been included. No RCTs met the inclusion criteria. There is also no evidence from RCTs to suggest that screening for domestic violence in adults with dental or facial injury in any health setting is beneficial or harmful.