Perception of dental practitioners in and around Kanpur city towards forensic odontology: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: In the present era, forensic odontology has expanded as one of the most remarkable and commendable branches of Forensic Sciences. Through forensic odontology, a dentist plays a very important role in crime investigation of any type. The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the knowledge, percipience and practical perception of forensic odontology among the dental practitioners in and around Kanpur city.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from Jan-Mar 2019 among 207 dental practitioners in and around Kanpur city including 143 BDS and 64 MDS through a questionnaire proforma. The proforma consisted of 20 questions prepared on the topic of forensic Odontology and role of dentist in the field of forensic Odontology.Results: In this study, nearly 70% of dental practitioners were aware of the role of dentist in forensics, and around 60% of dental practitioners maintain dental records with recording of personal data and clinical findings being the most frequently used method. In the present study most of the dental practitioners were not aware of significance of chelioscopy (63%) and rugoscopy (66%) in field of forensic Odontology. Nearly 70% of dentist accepted the fact that their level of knowledge regarding forensic dentistry is inadequate and nearly 40% of them were not confident in giving any opinion regarding the same.Conclusions: This study shows that although there is an adequate awareness of role of dentist in forensic Odontology, but there is lack of good knowledge, confidence and practical approach of the dental practitioners towards forensic Odontology which may be due to lack of training, experience, exposure in field of forensics. Thus, the need of the hour lies in updating the knowledge and also developing interest of the dental practitioners regarding forensic Odontology.

Awareness of Forensic Odontology among Dental Students, Academicians, and Dental Practitioners in Gujarat: A Questionnaire Based, Cross Sectional Study

“…recent study in Kanpur revealed inadequate knowledge of FO in 70% of the DPs. 11 The DPs in Varanasi city also revealed inadequate knowledge and awareness of FO. 12 Harchandani et al conducted a cross-sectional study of 300 DPs in Pune.…”

Knowledge, Attitude and Awareness of the Nurses towards Forensic Dentistry: A questionnaire-based survey

“…Jayalakshmi Kumaraswamy et al (2018) studied knowledge, attitude, and awareness of forensic odontology among medical students where (25%) had handled forensic dentistry case in emergency medicine and only 44% of participants were aware about the significance of maintaining dental records4. Mehrotra et al (2019) concluded that 69.5% dental practitioners had knowledge about the role of dentist in FO and 79% were willing to attend the CDEs on Forensics11 . As in our study,89.1% nurses were interested to participate in workshops and seminars on forensic odontology.…”