Nail the Culprit: Dental Identification

Forensic dentistry plays a major role in identification of deceased individuals⁹. Dental identification of humans occurs for a number of different reasons and in a number of different situations¹⁵. The bodies of victims of violent crimes,^16,13 fires,³ motor vehicle accidents⁷ and work place accidents can be disfigured to such an extent that identification by a family member is neither reliable nor desirable¹⁰. Persons who have been deceased for some time prior to discovery and those found in water also present unpleasant and difficult visual identifications. Dental identifications have always played a key role in natural and manmade disaster situations and in particular the mass casualties normally associated with aviation disasters^4,1,5,6. Because of the lack of a comprehensive fingerprint database, dental identification continues to be crucial.