Citation

Halpern LR. Oral Maxillofac. Surg. Clin. North Am. 2010; 22(2): 239-246.

Affiliation

Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, 55 Fruit Street, Warren Building, Suite 1201, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Lhalpern1@partners.org

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.coms.2010.01.009

PMID

20403555

Abstract

Health care professionals have increasingly recognized that intimate partner violence (IPV) is a highly prevalent public health problem with devastating effects on individuals, families, and communities. However, there are no obvious clinical characteristics of IPV. Interventions may prevent future IPV-related injuries, but they cannot be initiated until the diagnosis is made. Because of the frequency of IPV-related orofacial injuries, oral and maxillofacial surgeons (OMSs) may be the first and only health care providers to see these patients. Therefore, OMSs are in a pivotal position to diagnosis IPV-related injuries and expedite referral for interventional therapy. This article presents data that support the use of orofacial injuries as a prime predictor variable in identifying victims of IPV and provides: (1) an overview of the epidemiology of IPV-related orofacial injuries; (2) a discussion of the role of head, neck, and facial injuries as markers of IPV, and their role as a diagnostic tool to facilitate the early diagnosis and referral for management of IPV; (3) a list of the advantages and limitations of using orofacial injuries as indicators of IPV; and (4) future directions to improve efforts to educate OMSs in identifying patients who are at high risk for an IPV-related injury.

Language: en