Importance of Dental Records in Forensic Dental Identification

INTRODUCTION: The patient’s record maintains all the diagnostic information with regards to patients and contains valuable information that can be beneficial to the dentist as well as legal authorities during forensic human identification. AIM: Objective of the study was to compare dental records with an ideal dental record form, as well as to compare between dental records of private clinics and academic hospitals and to assess the awareness and the knowledge of the dentists regarding the maintenance of their dental records accurate for medico-legal purposes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A comparative cross-sectional study between records kept in private clinics and academic teaching hospitals in Khartoum locality. RESULTS: Our results showed that Students are more likely to encounter accurate dental records more than dentists in private clinics. In conclusion Students are more aware regarding medicolegal purposes of maintenance of dental records. Accurate maintenance of dental records is more among dental students. Therefore, private clinics encounter dental records as financial documents.