A look at forensic dentistry – Part 1: The role of teeth in the determination of human identity

A look at forensic dentistry – Part 1: The role of teeth in the determination of human identity
Published online: 14 April 2001
I A Pretty1 & D Sweet2
British Dental Journal
Nature.com

* Forensic dentistry plays a major role in body identification
* Several methods of dental identification exist
* DNA use in forensic dentistry
* Case examples of dental identifications

Abstract

Forensic dentistry can be defined in many ways. One of the more elegant definitions is simply that forensic dentistry represents the overlap between the dental and the legal professions. This two-part series presents the field of forensic dentistry by outlining two of the major aspects of the profession: human identification and bite marks. This first paper examines the use of the human dentition and surrounding structures to enable the identification of found human remains. Conventional and novel techniques are presented.
Introduction

As we enter a new millennium, society is faced with fresh challenges in every conceivable area. Despite leaps in modern technology, medical breakthroughs and the geographical changes that the last century has brought, crime still persists in all aspects of our lives. Violent and heinous activities that shatter the lives of victims, their friends and families occur everyday. Often, little can be done to repair such damage. The apprehension and subsequent prosecution of the perpetrator(s) is essential to maintain law and order. Through the specialty of forensic odontology, dentistry plays a small but significant role in this process. By identifying the victims of crime and disaster through dental records, dentists assist those involved in crime investigation. Always part of a bigger team, such personnel are dedicated to the common principles of all those involved in forensic casework: the rights of the dead and those who survive them.

The most common role of the forensic dentist is the identification of deceased individuals.1 Dental identification takes two main forms. Firstly, the most frequently performed examination is a comparative identification that is used to establish (to a high degree of certainty) that the remains of a decedent and a person represented by antemortem (before death) dental records are the same individual. Information from the body or circumstances usually contains clues as to who has died. Secondly, in those cases where antemortem records are not available, and no clues to the possible identity exist, a postmortem (after death) dental profile is completed by the forensic dentist suggesting characteristics of the individual likely to narrow the search for the antemortem materials.2

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