Awareness of Forensic Odontology among Legal Professionals, Chennai, India

The forensic discipline of law is a multidisciplinary team comprising of specialists in forensic medicine, forensic odontology, security and law.

The study was to find the awareness level of scope and utility of forensic odontology among lawyers in Chennai, South India.

A cross-sectional study using a self administered structured questionnaire was conducted in 200 lawyers between August and September of 2013. The data was analyzed depending on age, gender, type and years of practice.

Lawyers above 40 years of experience were more aware of palatal rugae analysis (P = 0.02), and those with more than 20 years were aware of lip print (P = 0.001) and bite mark analysis (P = 0.001). Males were more aware of forensic odontology with respect to criminal identification (P = 0.001). The knowledge of bite mark analysis was higher among male lawyers (P = 0.001), civil and criminal practicing lawyers (P = 0.004). All participants were aware that loss or fracture of tooth constitutes a grievous injury under Indian Penal Code (IPC) 320 clause 7(5).

This study highlighted the knowledge of forensic odontology among legal professionals and also identified the areas in which they need further appraisal.