Notificação de violência: conhecimento de cirurgiões-dentistas que atuam na Região Carbonífera, SC

The objective of the study was to analyze the knowledge and to make dental surgeons aware of the compulsory notification of interpersonal/self-inflicted violence. This was a quantitative, cross-sectional and descriptive analysis study carried out in the twelve municipalities in the coal-mining region located in the south of Santa Catarina, with public health dentists. Out of 134 dentists, 108 (80.6%) answered the questionnaire. Among these, 56 (52.8%) were male; 61 (56.5%) studied in a public university; 27 (25%) have been graduated for more than 21 years and 21 (19.6%) have attended post-graduation course in Public Health. Regarding the professionals' knowledge about the violence notification form, only 21.3% (n = 23) reported knowing it. Concerning the types of violence, physical violence was mentioned the most by dentists. In the Pearson’s Chi-squared Test, statistical significance was observed associating the female gender with more knowledge about the notification form (p = 0.036). Results showed that the professionals are not aware of either the notification form or the database of this instrument (p = <0.001), also showing that the majority of them have never participated in any educational activities on the subject (p = 0.001). In conclusion, dental surgeons who work in the public health network in municipalities in the coal-mining region have shown little knowledge about the types of violence, compulsory notification of violence and referral of victims, but they have shown interest in learning about it, since they participated actively in the educational activity carried out after the data collection.