Importância do prontuário odontológico completo para a identificação humana e proteção legal do cirurgião-dentista

Abstract

The positive identification of an individual is extremely important to help family members to go through the grieving process and to issue the death certificate, a necessary legal document. Many lives lost in mass disasters, such as air accidents, natural accidents and criminal acts, result in hundreds of unidentified victims. In situations like these, teeth and restorative materials are able to structure a database reliably to a correct identification. The dental record provides accurate information to the forensic dentist, reliable for identification, through a simple and accessible method. Therefore, the objective of this work was to carry out a bibliographic review on the importance of dental records for forensic dentistry and human identification, as well as for the protection of professionals in cases of lawsuits. In Forensic Dentistry, identification is done in a comparative way, comparing the ante-mortem and post-mortem dental documentation. This comparison would not be possible without a well-prepared, complete and properly filed dental record, together with the complementary exams performed. Therefore, the dental record has great value for forensic dentistry, since it is a fundamental tool in human identification, especially in complex situations, when the tooth is the only material in conditions for such analysis.