Study of oral and maxillofacial injuries resulting from domestic violence against women

Abstract

Domestic violence against women has been considered a serious public health problem in Brazil and in several countries around the world. The dentist works in the treatment of disease caused by aggression, and also has an ethical-legal obligation in the duty to raise awareness and register cases where their patients have been victims. The present study analyzed the main types of oral and maxillofacial injuries resulting from domestic violence against women, and their causes, outlining a profile of aggressors and victims, contributing to the dentist's knowledge of the subject, acting in the prevention, reception, care and referral of victims. This is an integrative literature review with searches performed in Pubmed, Bireme, LILACS, SciELO databases, using descriptors and their synonyms in Portuguese and English, including studies published between 2011 and 2021 for the analysis of results. It was observed that the victims of domestic violence are mostly young women, who live or have lived with the aggressors, violated with aggressions that damage maxillomandibular structures and this is due to the anatomical overexposure of this region to traumas that include tissue and bone injuries, being the responsibility of the dentist to be attentive not only to the recognition of the cases, but to corroborate in the treatment of victims and in the confrontation of this type of violence in our society.