Reliability of Ameloglyphics for Person Identification Following Adverse Conditions

Ameloglyphics is the study of tooth prints or enamel rod end patterns. These patterns are unique to an individual tooth of same individual and different individuals. The dental hard tissue has the highest resistance to most environmental effects like fire, desiccation, and decomposition and may be used as a forensic evidence. Human teeth are considered as a hard tissue analogy to fingerprints which is a reliable tool in a decomposed body. This study was executed to evaluate if the tooth prints could be used as an adjuctive forensic tool for an individual's identification and to assess the reproducibility and permanency of these tooth prints after exposing the teeth to various degrees of temperature. 90 tooth prints from 20 freshly extracted maxillary premolar teeth were obtained. To record enamel rod end pattern cellophane tape technique was used on the tooth surface. The impression was made of the teeth surface after incineration at various intervals (80° C, 400° C, 600° C, and 750° C). The resultant tooth prints were analyzed using Verifinger® standard SDK version 5.0 software. All tooth prints were distinct from each other and no inter-individual or intra-individual similarity was found. The toothprint obtained after such environmental insult are reproducible and showed high to very high similarity with the original tooth print of that particular tooth stored in the database. Tooth prints can be used as an effective adjuvant aid in person identification even in adverse conditions such as thermal injuries.