Denture marking: An aid in postmortem identification of edentulous individuals

The value of natural teeth in forensic science for identification of dead bodies has been evidenced many times in the dental literature. The edentulous patient on the other hand presents a more complex problem as far as determination of identity is concerned. Marked dentures can be important in identifying individuals in case of an accident, loss of memory, states of unconsciousness or in identifying the bodies of those who have died in disasters. Forensic organizations worldwide have therefore recommended that dental prostheses should be marked or labeled with at least the patient's name, driver's license number, and/or other identification number.

Several denture marking systems have been reported in the dental literature, but no standard protocol is followed. Also, very little is known about the resilience of such systems to the destructive environments in which a human body may be found.

Therefore, present study was aimed at exposing selected denture marking systems which were convenient to use and cost effective to a range of post-mortem assaults (chemical and thermal insults), in order to envision a denture marking method possessing the ability to best withstand a range of post-mortem assaults.