Abstract
Dentists should have the basic essential skills and knowledge about forensic odontology, to better collaborate with law enforcement and investigations. The objective of this survey was to assess the perceived and actual knowledge toward forensic odontology among dentists and to question their willingness to attend training courses on this specialty. A cross‐sectional survey based on a self‐administered questionnaire was conducted in various districts of Saudi Arabia. Four hundred dentists responded to a questionnaire that tested their actual knowledge of forensic odontology based on answering 15 statements using the alternatives correct, incorrect, do not know. The perceived knowledge was registered as strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree, then assigned scores respectively from four to zero. A willingness to attend a training course in the future was recorded by (yes/no). Scores were summated then subjected to descriptive statistics and regression analyses. Responses were received from 360 study participants (89% response rate). The percentage of correct answers, that is, the actual knowledge, was 67.9 (standard deviation [SD] ± 18.4). About two thirds of the responders (n = 251, 69.7%) indicated a willingness to attend a forensic odontology course in the future. Differences in both actual and perceived knowledge were identified on the basis of gender, work experience, education level, attended a course in forensic odontology, and having previously provided a past bite‐mark examination. The perceived knowledge on forensic odontology among dentists was moderate to low. The gap between perceived and actual knowledge signifies low self‐confidence. Dentists with higher education levels and experience tend to have better knowledge.
Highlights
Forensic odontology is a branch of dentistry that applies dental knowledge to criminal and civil law enforcement through the examination of dental evidence (Gambhir, Singh, Talwar, Gambhir, & Munjal, 2016)
Special consideration should be made for less educated dentists, less experienced (
Majority of dentists in this study have not provided any dental consultation for a bite victim in the past, 328 (91.1%), and only few, 95 (26.4%), ever attended a course in forensic odontology
Summary
Forensic odontology is a branch of dentistry that applies dental knowledge to criminal and civil law enforcement through the examination of dental evidence (Gambhir, Singh, Talwar, Gambhir, & Munjal, 2016). One approach is to perform lip print analysis, which has a unique wrinkle pattern and characteristics that can lead to the identification of an individual. This science is called cheiloscopy, a forensic investigation technique that deals with identification of people based on lips traces (Dineshshankar, Ganapathi, Kumar, Aravindhan, & Maheswaran, 2013). Forensic odontologists assess dental records to investigate the identity of unknown person's identity. They compare the dental data of a missing individual (antemortem) with that of a deceased person (postmortem; Interpol, n.d.)
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