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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2015 | Volume
: 1
| Issue : 1 | Page : 72 |
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Mass Disaster: Will Dental Records be Effectively Useful in Developing Nations?
Gaurav Sharma1, Archna Nagpal2
1 Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, S.R. Dental College, Faridabad, Haryana, India
2 Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, PDM Dental College and Research Institute, Bahadurgarh, Haryana, India
| Date of Web Publication | 29-May-2015 |
Correspondence Address:
Gaurav Sharma
Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, S.R. Dental College, Faridabad, Haryana
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/2349-5014.155552
How to cite this article:
Sharma G, Nagpal A. Mass Disaster: Will Dental Records be Effectively Useful in Developing Nations?. J Forensic Sci Med 2015;1:72 |
Sir,
Dentistry is growing at a rapid rate and now there is certainly an increased awareness of oral health care among the general population of developing nations. There are numerous studies conducted on the important role of forensic odontology in developing nations. However, I have always been intrigued about whether in case of a mass disaster, the records of the patients would actually be available to the concerned forensic odontologist or the forensics team. There is a lack of any common record of the patients in resource-constrained nations. The data is obtained by general dental practitioners but most of the time, the data is not recorded in either soft copy (through digital imaging) or conventional intraoral periapical film and is generally lost. The obvious reason for this is the lack of any archiving system. There is no compulsion to keep the records of the patients and thus, valuable data is lost. We would like to recommend a system for archiving records that can be cited in a website. However, there are certain practical difficulties involved such as the lack of any dental insurance scheme in emerging nations due to which the general dental practitioners may lack the motivation to archive records and place these records on a website. Moreover, the practitioners would feel uncomfortable placing their patients' records on a common website. A governing body to keep a tab on general dental practitioners could be set up for keeping at least radiographic records. There should be continuing dental education (CDE) programs explaining the importance of archiving radiographic dental records and removing the inhibitions of general dental practitioners as well as assuring them of the confidentiality of records. The importance of archiving radiographic records needs to be included as an issue in the graduation curriculum for dentistry in developing nations. There are a lot of complications and expenses involved in this endeavor. However, at least an initiation is required to set this process in motion. The successful change could be subsequently implemented at a regional level. The above mentioned suggestions could trigger minor changes regarding the archiving of records that could make a major difference in identification in case of a mass disaster in developing nations.
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