Dentists facing situations of sexual harassment: Integrative review.

Abstract

Sexual harassment is a type of violence configured as a crime under the Brazilian Penal Code. Situations like these are frequently experienced by the population, with women being the main victims. In Dentistry, such behaviors have brought a lot of concern, and promoted negative experiences either for Dentist, Oral Dental Assistant or Dental Hygienists. Then, through an integrative literature review, this study aimed to analyze whether the dentist feels prepared to deal with this problem, the attitudes taken by dentists when faced with situations in which they feel sexually harassed during their professional activity, as well as the feelings generated by the lived experience. For selection of articles, the databases PubMed, Biblioteca Virtual de Saude (BVS) and CAPES periodicals were used, and the sample of this review consisted of eight articles. After analyzing these publications, the results of the studies pointed to losses for professionals, that happen from work to personal life. Feelings of anxiety, fear, discouragement to do they job were reported, as well as nightmares and distressing memories of the lived moment. It was also found that Dentists do not feel professionally prepared to deal with situations of sexual harassment, and that they consider the inclusion of the subject in undergraduate dentistry curricula extremely relevant.