New forms of dentistry hope to help victims of rape and assault
BBC Futures reports on the work of Sharonne Zaks, an Australian dentist who is at the forefront of a movement to bring a more trauma-informed approach to dentistry - an approach that is being seen as increasingly important given the many links between oral health and other aspects of health, and between the mouth and both physical and psychological trauma. It’s noted that dentistry can be particularly harrowing for people who have experienced violence from an intimate partner or family member, which often leads to injuries around the face and mouth. It can also be highly distressing for people who have experienced sexual assault, and research from other branches of medicine has shown that healthcare services can unwittingly retraumatize patients. In the U.S., the Texas Association of Community Healthcare Centers (TACHC), a membership organization of federally qualified health centers that work with medically underserved populations, is collecting data on these kinds of patient outcomes as it expands its training on trauma-informed approaches. This training extends not only to frontline health workers across the different fields of medicine, but also to back-office staff. TACHC has worked with the non-profit CareQuest Institute for Oral Health to create an online course for dental professionals on trauma-informed oral healthcare. This was made available in April 2023. TACHC now has two full-time trauma-informed care coordinators.Read more here
