OrChid -Oral health care services for Children victims of violence and sexual abuse -Focusing on the clinical forensic dental examinations

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has a right to education, play, health, and to protection from violence and exploitation. In spite of this promise, violence and child abuse have become a major public health and welfare problem in high-income countries. There is an emerging need for prevention, early identification, and appropriate help and treatment of abused children?both for the sake of children as individuals and for society at large. The effect of violence and abuse on the oral health of children is still little explored. However, there is a growing body of empirical evidence that links child abuse and poor oral health, showing that children with violent and abusive experiences often have poor self-perceived oral health and higher incidence of untreated tooth decay compared to the general population. In Norway, the public dental health service sees all children on a regular basis, with as many as 98.4% of all children under its supervision. Despite the fact that dental professionals have a lot of knowledge about children's oral health, there has been little focus on the role of dental health services in detecting and preventing violence and abuse. With Orchid our ambition is to address these challenges and contribute not only to development of the under-researched area of clinical forensic odontology but also to development of targeted and coherent oral health services for children victims of violence and sexual abuse. The knowledge developed in OrChid will help to: 1. ensure early identification of violence and sexual abuse against children at dental clinics, 2. ensure reliable clinical forensic dental examination and 3. ensure good follow-up and dental health care for children and adolescents in vulnerable life situations. Orchid is a collaboration project that places significant emphasis on user participation. In the project, we hold regular meetings with an advisory group composed of user organizations and professionals with extensive experience in the areas of violence, abuse, and children's rights. The Orchid project manages the website tannbarnehus.no, which serves as a resource site for expert dentists at Statens Barnehus. On this website, users can request access to free resources, such as e-learning courses on evidence collection and a digital course on dentists' reporting obligations to child welfare services. The website tannbarnehus.no is continually being developed in collaboration with researchers and users in the project, and the content will be tailored during the project period to meet the knowledge needs of various target groups, including prosecuting authorities, police, and child welfare staff.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has a right to education, play, health, and to protection from violence and exploitation. In spite of this promise, violence and child abuse have become a major public health and welfare problem in high-income countries. There is an emerging need for prevention, early identification, and appropriate help and treatment of abused children—both for the sake of children as individuals and for society at large. The effect of violence and abuse on the oral health of children is still little explored. However, there is a growing body of empirical evidence that links child abuse and poor oral health, showing that children with violent and abusive experiences often have poor selfperceived oral health and higher incidence of untreated tooth decay compared to the general population. Furthermore, 70% of the physical injuries in abused children are located in the head and neck region. In Norway, the public dental health service is the only health service in the country that sees all children on a regular basis, with as many as 98.4% of all children under its supervision. Despite the fact that dental professionals have a lot of knowledge about children's oral health, there has been little focus on the role of dental health services in detecting and preventing violence and abuse. Furthermore, there is a lack of inter-service and inter-professional practice and collaboration when facing the complex health and social needs of children victims of violence and abuse. It is now time to change this trend as dental professionals are, in our opinion, a crucial piece of the puzzle in detecting child abuse and violence. With Orchid our ambition is to address these challenges and contribute not only to development of the under-researched area of clinical forensic odontology but also to development of targeted and coherent oral health services for children victims of violence and sexual abuse.