Medium Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR
Human Factors; Procedure
After our arrival [from BNA] and the passengers had deplaned; a supervisor approached me asking about 'our dent'. I was unaware of any dent; so I asked her which one she was referring to since there were a couple noted the maintenance index. In an attempt to be coy; she responded if I'm unaware a dent; then there must not be one. I halted that conversation and stated that if there's a dent discovered we need to look into it.That was when she handed me a printed email; from BNA operations earlier that morning. The email stated a dent was discovered aft of the L1 door; where the jet-bridge meets the aircraft. Upon reviewing this email with the pictures showing the location of the dent; we were able to see it ourselves. The dent was minor; and required stooping down to the floor of the jet-bridge to even see it at the correct angle. The dent was hard to see even when trying to find it and would not have been noticed on a normal walk around.I immediately noticed the dent was not referenced in the logbook and so a call to maintenance was immediately placed. At the time; maintenance control could not locate any reference to the dent and contract technicians were called to inspect the dent. During which time; maintenance control did in fact find the dent had been logged some time ago. What I found most troubling in this situation was that BNA operations discovered this dent before we arrived at the aircraft Sunday morning and made no mention of it to us; or anyone else at [our airline]for that matter. Furthermore; they sent an email; almost an hour before our departure to alert the next station of the discrepancy; but yet made no effort to notify the flight crew or anyone else at [the airline].I feel this is a huge breach in safety standards and needs to be addressed. If BNA operations had notified the flight crew; or anyone at [the airline] before our departure instead of the operations at the next station; this event would have never taken place.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
Air carrier flight crew reported not being aware of a dent on the aircraft; which was discovered by ground crew at the departure airport.