Dentists have several concerns about children

DentistDentist.Photo: pixabay.com

Last year, county councils reported 869 times that they suspected neglect of care after examining children’s teeth.

Figures NRK has collected from county councils shows that 869 reports of concern were submitted last year. This is an increase from 768 from the previous year, which Statistics Norway had collected.

“Most of the concerns are about neglect,” says researcher Ingrid Vaksdal Brattabø at Tannhelsetenesta competence center West to NRK.

Oslo and Akershus are clearly the highest in the overview with over 100 concerns from each area. From Hordaland, 82 messages have been registered. The fewest registered are from Sogn og Fjordane, where only six concerns have been submitted.

The researcher says there is a great deal of uncertainty associated with reporting these cases for many dentists. 30 percent of the staff in the dental health service have considered speaking up but still failed to do so.

“We meet all children in Norway between 3 and 18 years. We can of course not discover everything, but between 800 and 900 messages is not enough,” says Brattabø.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today