...contact info? Do they contact them? Do they share your info? Do dentist's offices contact your physician? Why is this information asked for on the forms you fill out when you go to the dentist? Thanks!
In other words.....If you have seen your doctor for an embarassing medical issue (yet not serious nor dental-related), and your dentist is your father-in-law, will he find out about it?

In case something should happen to you while in their care they can contact your doctor for specifics. If your on special med. that might be affected by something the dentist needs to do he may have to call your doctor for specifics on that med. Just a few reasons why....

They may want to inquire about any medical condictions yo might have like high blood pressure, anesthia problems or pain releavers. They just want to have the best info on you for emergany use.

I overheard a dentist call a doctor to see if a patient had been getting narcotics....seems like he said something about running a narcotics profile. The guy was at the dentist's office trying to get pain meds and he had been in before doing the same thing. Guess the dentist was trying to cover his bases. But probably he needs the info in case you had a medical emergency in his office (like a reaction to Novocaine, sinus infection, etc.). With the new HIPPA (or is it HIPA) laws you can relax a little - they can't share our info so easily.

It is important to know about someone's health background such as blood pressures, blood sugar, allergies etc. in case the dentist must perform a major operation these information will help him decide what steps are the safest.

The mouth is located close to your eyes, ears, nose and brain which is a very sensitive area therefore close precautions are required.

That's all I can think of though...

The dentist can not just randomly call your dr for no reason. Let's say your in the chair and you all of a sudden black out or have a seizure then the dentist may call your primary care dr to see why this is happening and figure out weather you need serious help. Of course the dentist will always call 911 first but just to be safe he may also call your dr. When you fill out your paper work for any dr office you sign a consent form for hippa thats your privacy act which means the only people who can view your chart are people in the office employees or yourself or you can also say your spouse or mother or father have the right to as well.