AWARENESS OF FORENSIC ODONTOLOGY IN A SAMPLE SIZE OF KARACHI BASED PRACTITIONER

Objectives: The aim of this study is to analyze the knowledge, attitude and practice of forensic dentistry among dental practitioner in Karachi.


KEY WORDS:
Forensic odontology , questionnaire, dental practitioners ,KAP study
Methods: A questionnaire based cross sectional study was conducted in a sample size of 300 dental practitioner. The questionnaire comprised of 13 relevant question with clinical and demographic Data was recorded.

Results: 70% of practitioner do not maintain their dental records while remaining 30% maintain their records.32% of them store it for less than an year ,34% maintain it for around two year and 7% maintain it for 1 to 2 year if time. Handwritten and computerized data were found to be more in practice than just single entity i. e 38 % and 48% respectively.86% were aware of child abuse and were inclined to inform guardian. Dental age estimation were known to 90% of practitioner. Accuracy in identifying person living or dead was known by 63% of them and 50% were inclined toward visual examination for identification purpose.74%were unaware of presenting Data as an evidence in courts.

Conclusions: Our study revealed that poor attitude and lack of practice in pertaining records, although adequate knowledge do not help towards keeping it in most of practitioner.