Authors
Dr. S. Praveen
Abstract
Forensic odontologist play an important role in identification of the victims of crime and disaster with the help of dental records which aids in investigation. Forensic dental identification is of two types. Firstly comparative dental identification which is carried out if both ante- mortem and post- mortem dental records are available. Secondly if ante mortem records are not available for identification, a post-mortem dental profiling is carried out by the forensic odontologist by analysing the parameters like ethnicity, age, sex, socioeconomic status etc to restrict the hunt for ante- mortem dental records. This process is called post- mortem dental profiling. Having done this, still if not able to establish the identity of the victim, a skeletal analysis team can be formed by forensic anthropologist, forensic odontologist and reconstructive practitioner for further search. Therefore on the basis of skull of the deceased and with the help of forensic odontologist the reconstructive practitioner can give lifetime resemblance of the skull. This process of recovering, regenerating and re- establishing of needed information for the reconstruction of life time resemblance of skeletal remains by post mortem dental profiling is called reconstructive post mortem dental profiling. This reconstructive post mortem dental profiling gives unique dental features of each person which has more practical values for the identification of the unknown persons. This helps the forensic odontologist to review their jobs with wider prospective and to document the dental profiles in the absence of ante- mortem records. Keywords: Forensic Odontologist, Ante- Mortem, Post Mortem, Dental Profiling, Reconstruction, Ethnicity, Sex Determination
Introduction
Forensic odontology is a branch of dentistry, medicine as well as forensic science playing an important role in human identification, age estimation, bitemark analysis, child abuse and various other civil and criminal cases possessing dental evidence. Forensic odontology is therefore defined by Federation Dentaire Internationale (FDI) as “that branch of dentistry which, in the interest of justice, deals with proper handling and examination of dental evidence and with the proper evaluation and presentation of dental findings”. The primary function of forensic odontologist is identification of unknown remains using dental features. Comparitive dental identification and post-mortem dental profiling are the two types of human identification in forensic odontology. Comparitive identification is done when both AM and PM dental records are available. If AM dental records are not available, a forensic odontologist carries out a process of establishing identity by analysing the parameters like ethnicity, sex, age, economic status, personal habits, occupation, dietry habits, systemic and dental conditions from the dental component of the unknown remains. This process is called Post- mortem Dental Profiling. It is called Reconstruction because it involves in meticulous adjoining of different dental portion to form a single unit starting from simple piece of dental recovery to life time regeneration.
The precise identification of the unknown remains can be done with the help of AM dental records. PM dental profiling plays an important role in reconstructing the identity when these records are not available, skeletal remains in an abandoned place and sometimes with inconclusive DNA results. Ethnicity, age estimation and sex determination are the basic triad of PM dental profiling (Figure No.1). The identification of persons stretched out for a long time gives lawfulness and restfulness of family members, relatives and friends of the deceased (Pretty and Sweet, 2001).
The information obtained from this process acts as a nucleus in the search for AM dental records. The execution of dental profiling can be done by visual examination of oral cavity (invasive manual method), radiographs, computer softwares like Dentascan, virtopsy and virdentopsy by Emilio Nuzzolese (non- invasive method).
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| APA Style | Praveen, Dr. S. “Reconstructive Post- Mortem Dental Profiling: A Comprehensive Review (Part I- Ethnicity And Sex Determination).” Academic Journal of Anthropological Studies, vol. 07, no. 01, 2024, pp. 01–05. |
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