Now dentists can issue death certificate

Janjivan Bureau
New Delhi: Now dentist shall issue death certificate. The Union Health Ministry issue the order in this regard. Dental Council of India (DCI) demanded from a long- time to empowering dental surgeons to issue a death certificate.
Dr Dibyendu Mazumdar, president, Dental Council of India (DCI), on Friday said that so far only a MBBS doctor was authorised to give a death certificate, while dentists could not, even if the patient had died during a dental procedure. The Health Ministry accepeted our claimed and issue an order recently.
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has approved the Revised Dentists (Code of Ethics) Regulations, 2014 and it got notified in the official Extraordinary Gazette of India. The major highlights of the Regulations ar The registered dental practitioner shall issue death certificates if a patient dies during the procedure
Every registered dental practitioner shall maintain the relevant records pertaining to his out-patients and in-patient and reserved for a minimum period of three years
“The Government’s move to authorise dental surgeons to issue a death certificate if a patient dies during the procedure has brought them at par with MBBS doctors,” said Dr. Anil Chandna a senior member of the DCI.
According to the Section 3.10 of the Regulations, “Dentists can now declare death if a patient dies in their care.” The Gazette notification in this regard has been issued by the Ministry recently.
There are 305 dental colleges across the States and presently there are 93,332 dentists in the country. This is too less when compared to medical doctors. India has 6.5 physicians per 10,000 population while less than 1 dentist (0.8) per 10,000 population. This is a matter of concern given that oral disease burden in India is very high, as per a WHO report.