Comparative Dental Analysis: Should Dentists Release Dental Records?

Comparative dental analysis is the main role of a UK forensic dentist. It’s undertaken to determine whether postmortem (PM) findings are in agreement with provided antemortem (AM) data of a suspected individual, in order to investigate a positive identification. It requires dentists to maintain accurate dental records and to breach their confidentiality obligations to their patients when a confirmatory identification is required. Several different dental records can prove helpful during the process of which are outlined in a novel checklist designed to guide both practitioners and law enforcement officers. It’s supported by the UK Missing Persons Unit and the British Association of Forensic Odontology (BAFO) and is available to download in a PDF format from dentalidrecordchecklist.com.