Knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding clinical diagnosis and certification of death by dentists

Objectives: The medical officers play a major role in certification of death. In the year 2014, the Dental Council of India revised the Dentist’s (Code of Ethics) Regulation that enables a dentist to issue a death certificate if a patient dies during procedure. This survey was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding clinical diagnosis and certification of death by clinical dental student, dental house surgeons, postgraduate students, and dental faculty. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was carried out in two dental colleges in central Kerala. A prefabricated validity tested questionnaire consisting of 16 questions assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practice was used for the study. Results were expressed as number and percentage of respondents for each question and were analyzed using the SPSS Version 17 software. Chi-square test was used for inferential analysis. Results: The total sample size was 329. About 53% knew that dentists could certify death, of whom 9% knew that was the only circumstance for a dentist to certify death. About 13% of the respondents knew the criteria of clinical diagnosis as outlined by the WHO criteria. About 92% opined that there is a need for dentists to be trained on this topic. Only 20% felt that the present undergraduate curriculum is competent enough to enable dentist to certify death. Conclusion: The study reveals the lack of knowledge among the dental fraternity regarding the clinical diagnosis and certification of death. With dental undergraduate curriculum competent enough to provide the dentists with knowledge regarding its allied aspects, incorporation of the same in the present curriculum could play a significant role in enabling dentists to clinically diagnose and certify death.