You are working as a dental therapist and a 5 year old boy has come in for a dental checkup, the mother attended the appointment. You notice in your examination that the child has 2 teeth to be extracted due to being abcessed. You explain what has happened to the mother and she seems fine with it.
1 week later when they come in for the extractions, you notice the child has bruises on his face and is very scared. once you start explaining to the child what you are going to do he starts screaming and thrashing around in the chair. The mother tells him off and he calms down a bit. You manage to get the local anaesthetic in and he starts screaming and thrashing around again even worse. You say to the mother maybe it is not a good idea to treat him tofy however she gets very angry and demands you to do the extactions whilst giving the son a slap on the face.
What should you do?
It is proposed that there should be a free programme where children from abusive homes can get there teeth pulled out in a safe, pain free environment with no parents involved.