Jornal de pesquisa forense

A Retrospective Analysis over the Forensic Files in one of the Dental Faculty Archives in Turkey

Abstract

Humeyra Kocaelli and Feryal Karaman

Founded in 1453, Istanbul University is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the world. Its Faculty of Dentistry is the first faculty of the University and celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 2008, however, forensic dental records for the last 25 years only are available in the 100 year-old Faculty archive. It is well known that the quality of records is extremely important in forensic sciences .
Dental professionals have a major role to play in keeping accurate dental records and providing all necessary information. Due to the lack of sufficient forensic odontology lectures in the dentistry faculties, some problems may occur. When dentists complete their education without having any knowledge about forensic odontology, they cannot be in a position of investigating, observing, commenting and preparing the proper report.
This situation may sometimes lead to misjudgment about the reports prepared by the dentists in courts, which can have serious effects on legal verdict. The aim of this study is to investigate and improve the quality of the forensic files over a 25-year period in the Faculty of Dentistry, Istanbul University, and to find out how the progress of the forensic sciences reflect the forensic records in that time period. Additionally, we aim to determine if there are some mistakes committed during the preparation of forensic reports and if there are certain points requiring further scrutiny.