Odontology has been used in forensics for many years to aid in identification of people in crimes or disasters. There are many techniques, assessments, and procedures that are used in patient identification that may help narrow down person identification. The question that is posed is how is using odontology in forensics useful for person identification and what are its limitations? There are numerous amounts of dental conditions and abnormalities that a person may present with, which may pose some limitations in the methods used in forensic odontology. The objective of this paper is to describe and understand the methods that are used in forensic odontology, as well as learn what limitations these methods may present. Dental identifications
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Other techniques that will be discussed is the utilization of visual assessment of dental abnormalities in tooth formation and eruption that a person may present with such as, amelogenesis imperfecta, which is disorder in the enamel tooth development. Although there seems to be only some few limitations to the methods used for person identification, there are a couple of literatures that discuss the discrepancies that may be presented in these methods. These are presented to allow these discrepancies to be considered carefully to allow forensic odontology to be as accurate as possible. It is important to be knowledgeable of the background of forensic odontology and its methods nevertheless to also consider the possible inconsistencies that may be presented with these …show more content…
It has been traced back to the 49 A.D and all the way up to present day, although technology and new methods have improved the accuracy of person identification. There is Folklore that references the first use of bite mark for identification of King William the Conquer, circa 1066 A.D.1 The first formally reported case for dental identification was in 1453 with 80 year old warrior John Talbot, Earl of Shrews bury, who had fell in the battle of Castillon.4 Pramod and Marya1 state, “Identification is based on comparison between known characteristics of a missing individual (termed ante-mortem data) with recovered characteristics from an unknown body (termed post-mortem data)”.1 Individuals that have numerous or complex dental treatment or unique dental characteristics are easier to identify than those who have little or no dental treatment. Dental enamel is one of the hardest tissues in the body, therefore teeth and restorative materials on teeth can withstand post-mortem damages from events that can disrupt or change other body tissues.1 There is use of postmortem dental profiles that are utilized when there is no definite identity of an individual. The purpose of this postmortem profile is to provide information to investigators that will restrict the search to a smaller population of people. Forensic odontologists can
Other techniques that will be discussed is the utilization of visual assessment of dental abnormalities in tooth formation and eruption that a person may present with such as, amelogenesis imperfecta, which is disorder in the enamel tooth development. Although there seems to be only some few limitations to the methods used for person identification, there are a couple of literatures that discuss the discrepancies that may be presented in these methods. These are presented to allow these discrepancies to be considered carefully to allow forensic odontology to be as accurate as possible. It is important to be knowledgeable of the background of forensic odontology and its methods nevertheless to also consider the possible inconsistencies that may be presented with these …show more content…
It has been traced back to the 49 A.D and all the way up to present day, although technology and new methods have improved the accuracy of person identification. There is Folklore that references the first use of bite mark for identification of King William the Conquer, circa 1066 A.D.1 The first formally reported case for dental identification was in 1453 with 80 year old warrior John Talbot, Earl of Shrews bury, who had fell in the battle of Castillon.4 Pramod and Marya1 state, “Identification is based on comparison between known characteristics of a missing individual (termed ante-mortem data) with recovered characteristics from an unknown body (termed post-mortem data)”.1 Individuals that have numerous or complex dental treatment or unique dental characteristics are easier to identify than those who have little or no dental treatment. Dental enamel is one of the hardest tissues in the body, therefore teeth and restorative materials on teeth can withstand post-mortem damages from events that can disrupt or change other body tissues.1 There is use of postmortem dental profiles that are utilized when there is no definite identity of an individual. The purpose of this postmortem profile is to provide information to investigators that will restrict the search to a smaller population of people. Forensic odontologists can