Authors
Amisha Nayak, Dr. Sandhya Tamgadge
Abstract
Tooth is a prime hard tissue remain for forensic identification. Often in the absence of teeth for forensic investigations, Bones can provide enough information to recognize the deceased and bring about justice for the victim and convict the culprit. Estimation of Age, Sex, Stature and Race in a forensic sample is difficult due to its varied response towards extrinsic and intrinsic factors over the individual’s lifetime. Numerous studies on tooth structure are performed and collated using these parameters. However, studies conducted with Alveolar Bone as a forensic sample are limited with no collation. Alveolar bone plays a vital role in identifying the deceased due to its long vitality even after the decomposition of the soft tissues of the unknown deceased. Numerous method for person identification, such as Morphological methods, Radiographic methods, Histological methods, Digital methods and Molecular methods applied in various studies of forensic investigations are compiled in this review. Alveolar bone as a diagnostic tool could be contemplated as the methods in forensic investigations owing to an array of methods used for identification especially in edentulous individuals. This review describes Alveolar Bone as a vital tool in forensic diagnosis using various diagnostic methods of forensic personal identification. Keywords: Alveolar Bone, Forensic Odontology, Diagnostic Tool, Dentistry.
Introduction
Forensic odontology is defined as the proper handling, examination of dental evidence, evaluation of dental evidence, presented in the interest of justice. The word forensic is derived from the Latin “forensic” which means “before the forum” from ancient Rome, while “odontology” is the study of the tooth and other orofacial structures (Cordner and Tidball-Binz, 2017).
There are various methods of personal identification in forensic odontology. Teeth are commonly found hard tissue used for evaluation. In absence of teeth, the alveolar bone could be considered as a second option.
Alveolar bone is a peculiar part of both upper and lower jaw bone i.e., maxillary and mandibular bone that supports the teeth. It forms as the teeth erupt and after the tooth is lost. The Alveolar Bone comprises an of-outer cortical plate and cancellous bone (Suchetha et al., 2017).
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| APA Style | Nayak, A., & Tamgadge, D. S. (2022). Alveolar Bone - As a Valuable Evidence in Forensic Investigations - A Review. Academic Journal of Anthropological Studies, 5(1), 09–14. |
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