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Dentists 'should be forced to keep records'

Marie Cassidy, the pathologist, is calling for dentists to be forced by law to keep detailed records on every patient they treat.

Incomplete accounts of work carried out on people’s teeth currently makes her job of identifying badly decomposed corpses difficult. “It would be very helpful if there was a compulsion,” said Cassidy. “There are some dentists who keep meticulous records, but there are others who have just recorded what they have done. That causes problems because then we have to keep going back in time until you find older records.”

Dental records are used to identify bodies when the face is unrecognisable either because of injury or decay.

“In identification, forensic dentistry is invaluable because we deal with a lot of decomposed bodies and…

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