The challenges to Forensic dentistry are not unique

The assault of scientific and legal forces on traditional forensic dental services cannot be ignored, since they may also transform many other forms of clinical practice. The impact on forensic dentistry has been remarkable. For example, whereas forensic dental evidence has significantly contributed to many criminal investigations in the past, especially in cases where fire, trauma and decomposition has contaminated the DNA evidence, the interpretation of all forms of forensic evidence is now increasingly challenged in the courts.

The principal concerns stem not only from inadequacies of their rigorous scientific base, since these have also been exacerbated by serious lapses in the ethical standards of a number of prominent healthcare professionals. The continued obligation of dentists to screen patients for the early detection of oral cancers, however, endorses that other branches of dentistry are susceptible to these ethical and scientific challenges.

Recent advances in molecular biology serve to illustrate this dilemma, since they have established that the development of oral cancer may extend over periods up to two or more decades in duration prior to the late-stage clinical presentation of these malignancies. The early screen-based identification of individuals with carcinogenic risk behaviors is therefore a more rational strategy to control or reduce the current pandemic burden of oral cancer on society, since the initial precancerous stages are reversible by the prompt implementation of educational and legislative initiatives to curb the abuse of tobacco and other carcinogenic behaviors.

As these may also need to be augmented by the prescription of chemo-preventive and therapeutic agents, the potential impact of scientific and legal forces on the profession is enormous.