1Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, SVIMS-Sri Padmavathi Medical College for women, Tirupati, India
2Assistant Professor, Deparment of Pharmacology, SVIMS-Sri Padmavathi Medical College for women, Tirupati, India
3Professor and Head, Deparment of Pharmacology, SVIMS-Sri Padmavathi Medical College for women, Tirupati, India
4Associate Professor, Deparment of Pharmacology, SVIMS-Sri Padmavathi Medical College for women, Tirupati, India
5Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, SVIMS-Sri Padmavathi Medical College for women, Tirupati, India
*Corresponding author: K Jyothi Prasad, Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, SVIMS-Sri Padmavathi Medical College for Women, Tirupati, INDIA. Phone No. (0) 9701768830, E-mail jyothiprasad99@gmail.com
Online published on 2 January, 2017.
Forensic odontology though learned in the undergraduate curriculum but there is no separate postgraduate specialty in this area. In need of forensic expert advice, the law and enforcement department depends on the opinion of broad specialty dental practitioners. This study was designed to analyze the knowledge, attitude and awareness of forensic odontology among dental practitioners in Tirupati.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of 126 dental practitioners in Tirupati and data was collected by means of a questionnaire survey. Answers to a set of 15 relevant questions with demographic and clinical data were recorded.
10% of the dental practitioners did not maintain dental records in their clinic/workplace and out of the 90% who maintained records, 60% were not aware of child abuse and the actions to be taken for it. Estimation of dental age and gender was known to 63% of them. 65% dentists knew the role of forensic odontology in mass disasters. About 81% knew the significance of teeth bite mark patterns and 59% knew that they can testify as an expert witness in the court of law while 41% lacked formal training in collecting, evaluating and presenting dental evidence.
Our study revealed that the knowledge level was inadequate among dentists and lack of practice pertaining to clinical knowledge of forensic odontology is prevailing among the dental post graduates.
Forensic odontology, Dentists, Knowledge, Mass disaster
