What′s the deal with dental records for practicing dentists? Importance in general and forensic dentistry

Abstract

Dental records are essential for dentist and patient protection, and its maintenance is considered an ethical and legal obligation of the dentist: Ethical, because it satisfies the duty of care that the dentist has toward his patient and legal, as it is an investment for future protection against medico-legal complications. In addition to its legal and ethical role, the dental fraternity in India is slowly waking up to its importance in forensic dentistry. Dentists could play a vital role in assisting forensic investigators in providing information that would help in the identification of perpetrators or victims of crime and natural or manmade disaster situations. This information would be easily available and accessible through well-maintained patient records under dental care.

The importance of increasing the forensic relevance of oral health records for improved human identification outcomes

“…In fact, maintaining accurate and complete dental case notes is an oral health practitioner's ethical and legal obligation 10 . In Australia, all oral health care workers must produce and manage patient case notes in line with professional guidelines and laws [11][12][13][14][15] .…”

The Knowledge and Practice of Forensic Dentistry Among Dental Practitioners in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.

“…This also helps in the recognition of dead individuals by comparing ante and postmortem dental records (Nagarajappa, 2014). We can use teeth to estimate the age of the deceased individuals especially children (Devadiga, 2014). The teeth are one of the human remains that together with different oral habits provide an oral environment as fingerprint unique to each individual which is particularly useful in the identification of deceased individuals (Nagarajappa, 2014).…”

“…It is legal and ethical responsibility of dentists to maintain dental records in their clinics (Devadiga, 2014). Dental practitioners can play an effective role in forensic odontology by maintaining securely retained dental records.…”

Esthetic Reformation of Traumatically Fractured Anterior Tooth Using Prefabricated Fiber Post and Core in Uncooperative Pediatric Patient: A Case Report

“…This information relates to the patient's past and current clinical history and contains a clinical physical examination report of the mouth and teeth, lifestyle habits, presence of any condition with a genetic component, any diagnostic methods required, any recommended therapeutic protocols, and a prognosis-all compiled in the form of a comprehensive document [23,24,25,26,27]. Thus, an accurate dental record is a significant legal document, which often plays a key role in forensic dentistry; and as it is in the possession of the dentist, the dentist assumes an express social and legal responsibility regarding patient records [28,29,30,31,32].…”

“…Dental records should never contain references to the patient's financial status, or to the dentist's personal opinions. In addition, the records must be maintained for 7-10 years, with secure, controlled-access storage to ensure patient privacy [4,8,28,32,34,35]. Because dentists develop and maintain solid dental records, they become valuable members of the legal team when an individual must be identified [36,37,38,39].…”