%0 Journal Article %T Occurrence of Child and Adolescent Abuse in Caruaru-PE %A Ana Fl¨¢via GRANVILLE-GARCIA %A Valdenice Aparecida de MENEZES %A Blancard TORRES FILHO %A Jo£¿o Ricardo ARA¨²JO %J Pesquisa Brasileira em Odontopediatria e Cl¨ªnica Integrada %D 2006 %I Associa??o de Apoio ¨¤ Pesquisa em Sa¨²de Bucal (APESB) %X Objective: Verify the occurrence of child and adolescent abuse referred to Caruaru Tutelary Council between 2002 and 2004. Method: To this end, data on the complaints lodged in the period concerned was requested from the Tutelary Council. Results: From a total of 798 cases reported the most common was neglect (49.24%) followed by psychological violence (28.94%). Physical and sexual abuse represented 17.6% and 4.66% of the total of the sample, respectively. As to sex, males represented 55.3% of the cases reported. Conclusion: According to literature, lesions are most frequent on the orofacial area. The awareness of such a piece of information makes a high demand for dental surgeons¡ä ethical and legal responsibility. Besides reporting suspect child abuse to authorities, there is now a call for creating protective mechanisms for the abused in addition to preventive educational campaigns with focus on the need for denouncing and avoiding all kinds of maltreatment. %K Child abuse %K Domestic violence %K Child %U http://www.uepb.edu.br/eduep/pboci/pdf/Artigo9v61.pdf