Dental Perspective in the Assessment of Grievousness of Dental Injury and Age Estimation in a Sexual Assault Victim: A Case Report

Forensic odontology is a branch which deals with proper handling and examination of dental evidence, and the proper evaluation and presentation of dental findings. It uses the skills of a dentist in personal identification during mass calamities, sexual assault and child abuse to name a few. The need to estimate the age of living individuals is becoming more frequent because of increasing number of crime rates by and against minors, increase in the number of immigrants without acceptable identification documents and the falsification of data to be prevented from being sentenced to a punishment. Teeth are bestowed with features of hardness and resilience against external factors such as chemicals, putrefaction and fire explosives making them a durable source of age determination. Dental age estimation has proven to be equivalent to the skeletal methods of age estimation. Further dentist’s play a significant role in assessing the grievousness of the injuries sustained to the oral cavity. Hence it become a dentist’s moral responsibility to act effectively in legal matters of such nature. Here we present a case suspected of sexual assault where age estimation and assessment of grievousness of injuries faced by the victim are evaluated.