Functional oral self-mutilation in children and adolescents: a scoping review

Objective: To present characteristics of publications in the worldwide scientific literature produced on the topic of functional oral self-mutilation in children and adolescents. Methods: This study is a scoping review. The search was made in the following databases: MEDLINE/PubMed, BVS/ LILACS, Web of Science and PsycNet. We used the Kappa test for the agreement analysis. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics presenting both absolute and relative frequencies. Results: 18 articles have been selected, all of which were published in English between the years of 1968 and 2017 in 4 different continents. Most of them were case reports and were conducted in hospitals and universities involved male children. The research area with the highest number of studies was Dentistry, followed by Medicine and Psychology, with clinical examinations as their most utilized diagnostic strategy. Conclusions: The literature on the subject is still quite scarce and has a low level of scientific evidence, which highlights the need for studies with high levels of scientific evidence in order to reach a better understanding of matters that are inherent to this scoping review’s topic