Legitimacy and Legality of the Technique for Separating Parent/Caregiver and Child during the Dental Treatment in the Brazilian Scenario

Abstract

Introduction: The technique for separating parent/caregiver and child during the dental treatment deserves further and profound discussion in the light of the legal and moral references involving the dental treatment of children and adolescents because this debate seems not to be properly addressed in the Brazilian dental literature. The theoretical reference on which this study is based contemplates three specific approaches on the investigated subject in both their aspects of legitimacy and legality of the technique: technical and ethical aspects (Deontology and Bioethics) and legal aspects (Civil Law Code, Statute of the Children and Adolescents and Consumer Defense Code). Objective: This literature review consists in the survey and analysis of ethical and legal aspects involved in the use of the separation technique during behavioral management of the child during the dental treatment, aiming to guide and advise the dentists and other health professionals to ponder upon this dialectic relationship between the professionals and their patients. Conclusion: There is no evidence that separating children from their parents/caregivers during dental treatment will result in a better behavior of the children. The ethical and legal aspects related to this technique are the child’s vulnerability and incapacity, the need of protecting the personal autonomy, the analysis of the technique’s risks and benefits, the education and information to the family as regards the dental treatment of the child and the informed consent given by the child’s legal representative. This technique may be considered as illegitimate and illegal if its use is not shared among the dentist, the child and the child’s legal representative. The Brazilian dentists should encourage the presence of the child’s and adolescent’s legal representative during the dental treatment and the use of the separation technique should be seen as an extreme measure to be employed with the common decision shared by all involved participants.