Dept. of Oral Pathology, St. Joseph Dental College Eluru, West Godavari (Dt.), Andhra Pradesh-534004, Mobile: 09246663334, 09246663335.
BITEMARKS – other name “MORSUS HUMANUS” 4is a physical alteration in a medium (object or tissue), representative pattern caused by the contact of teeth of an animal or human. Bitemarks are an important and sometimes controversial aspect of forensic odontology. Teeth are used as weapons in the case of offence or defense.
Bitemarks made on foodstuffs in the crime area are of great importance in criminal investigation which plays an important role in identifying the suspect and constitutes one of the commonest forms of dental evidence present in dental courts. An important step in bitemark investigation is comparing and matching a suspect s dentition with bitemark left on the inanimate object at crime scene.
The present study was done on 35 subjects to asses and compare the bitemarks on inanimate objects (cucumber) with that of the dentition. These subjects were asked to give their impression from which the master dental casts were fabricated. Impressions made on the cucumber were recorded by rubber based elastomeric impression material. These impressions were compared and evaluated to the tracing (superimposing technique manually) obtained from dentulous casts models.
The experts expressed the percentage (%) of matching ranged from 61.7% to a maximum of 98.1% in the present study which matches parallel to that of other studies.
bitemarks, inanimate object (cucumber), elastomeric rubber based material, superimposing technique, forensic experts
