INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE

REVIEW ARTICLE

Forensic Odontology: The New Dimension in Dental Analysis

K. P. Divakar
Lecturer, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, DAPMRV Dental College,
CA-37, 24th Main, 1 Phase J.P. Nagar, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT

Forensic Odontology a branch of Forensic sciences uses the skill of the dentist in personal identification
during mass calamities, sexual assault and child abuse to name a few. This branch not stranger to many has
been growing tenfold in its potential and its ability to bring the forlorn to justice where a dental remains
is the only available evidence. Its role and importance in the judiciary is fast growing and hence in depth
knowledge in this field seems more than justified. (Int J Biomed Sci 2017; 13 (1): 1-5)

Keywords: Forensic odontology; DNA Analysis; Bite Marks

INTRODUCTION deals with the proper handling and examination of den-

Forensic odontology is proper handling, examination,
and evaluation of dental evidence, which will be presented
in the interest of justice. The evidence that may be derived
from the teeth, the age (in children) and identification of
the person to whom the teeth may belong. Knowledge of
forensic dentist requires encompassing of number of dis-
ciplines, since the dental records obtained can identify an
individual or afford the information needed by the authori-
ties to establish identification of the case (1).
Keiser-Neilson defined forensic dentistry as that
branch of forensic dentistry that in the interest of justice
Corresponding author: K. P. Divakar, Department of Conservative
Dentistry and Endodontics, DAPMRV Dental College, CA-37, 24th Main,
1 Phase J.P. Nagar, Bangalore, Karnataka - 560078, India. Tel: 9844515541;
E-mail: drdivukp@gmail.com.
Received February 5, 2017; Accepted March 5, 2017
Copyright: 2017 K. P. Divakar et al. This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Li-
cense (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/), which permits unre-
stricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited.
tal evidence and the proper evaluation and presentation of
dental findings (2).
This article will give you a collective review on the
evolution, various methods and applications of forensic
odontology, which plays a major role in keeping the dental
records accurately, and providing required information,
which will help the legal authorities to recognize negli-
gence, malpractice, fraud or abuse and identification of
unknown individuals.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
66 AD: Well-documented evidence to the use of teeth
for identification began AD with Agrippina and Lollia
Pauline case. It was the first use of dental identification
where there is a record.
1193: The first forensic identification in India started
in were Jai Chand, a great Indian monarchy was destroyed
by Muhammads army and Jai Chand, Raja of Kanauji was
murdered and he was identified by his false teeth.
1758: Peter Halket was killed in during French and In-
dian wars in a battle near Fort Duquesne. Halket son iden-
tified his fathers skeleton by an artificial tooth.

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 PERUSAL ON FORENSIC DENTISTRY
1776: At the battle for Breeds Hill in Boston, Dr. Jo-
seph Waren was killed in the year His face was not able to
identify as he suffered from a fatal head wound. A dentist,
Paul Revere, identified Dr. Warren, dead body by a small
denture that he had fabricated for him.
IDENTIFICATION UNKNOWN REMAINS
Dental identification plays an important role when
identification of remains of deceased person is skeleton-
ized, decomposed, burned or dismembered and is invalid
by visual or fingerprint methods.
The identification of remains by dental evidence is pos-
sible because, the hard tissues are preserved after death
and can even withstand a temperature of 1600 degree C
when heated without appreciable loss of microstructure,
and the status of a persons teeth change throughout the
life and the combination of decay, missing, filling can be
obtained from any fixed time (2).
Odontological identification is based on systemic com-
parison of pre and post mortem dental characteristics of
individual based on dental records and the supporting
radiographs (3). But this technique is complicated by the
trauma to jaws and inadequate ante-mortem dental infor-
mation.
According to American board of forensic odontology
dental identification can be divided into four types (3):
1. Positive identification: The ante-mortem and post-
mortem data match to establish that it is from same indi-
vidual;
2. Possible identification: The ante-mortem and post-
mortem data have few consistent features, but because of
quality of the records it is difficulty to establish the iden-
tity;
3. Insufficient evidence: The data is not enough to from
the conclusion;
4. Exclusion: The ante-mortem and postmortem data
clearly inconsistent.
In many cases, dental identification, fingerprint, and
DNA are most commonly used and often complement
each other.
DETERMINATION OF SPECIES
It comes into picture when the evidence found at the
scene of crime is a fragment of mandible or just a single
tooth, which is of few millimeters in size (5). It is possible
to determine species by dental tissues because the dentinal
fluids contain special information, which can be compared
2 March 2017 Vol. 13 No. 1
and analyzed using counter current electrophoresis with
artificially antisera (3).
DNA ANALYSIS IN FORENSIC DENTISTRY
The sample for DNA analysis is isolated from the bio-
logical material such as blood, semen, hair roots, tissue,
teeth, bone and saliva (5).
SPECIMEN SELECTION
In the decomposed post-mortem tissue, Although DNA
undergoes progressive fragmentation through autolytic
and bacterial enzymes; the sequence of information is still
present in the DNA fragment (7). Therefore information is
not completely lost even though the body has undergone
decomposition. In the fresh cadaver, unclotted blood can
be source of DNA (8).
Storage
The specimen should be stored in cold place or frozen.
Desiccation, simple air-drying can be used to store bone
and bloodstains. Tissue in formalin is often used for PCR
based DNA testing9.
Collection
One should be very careful about contaminating the
specimens so should wear gloves and use pristine instru-
ments. The collection of fresh specimen is done by inci-
sional biopsy (9).
Reference sample
When there is no much information about ante-mor-
tem of the individual, the specimens can be selected from
spouse and children as reference sample for DNA testing.
Forensic odontology has an important role because teeth
and saliva is excellent source of DNA. Since 1992, the iso-
lation of DNA from saliva and salivary stained material is
done (9).
Saliva
It is major source of DNA because; it contains
sloughed epithelial cells from oral mucosa and inner sur-
face of lip. The enzymes such as Streptococcus Salivar-
ius and Streptococcus Mutans are present on teeth and
in the saliva (11). In Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
technology, the Streptococcal DNA sequence provides a
means with which to identify the bacterial composition
from bite marks and can be matched exclusively to those
from the teeth responsible (9).
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 PERUSAL ON FORENSIC DENTISTRY
Teeth
Teeth with act as major source of DNA because its abil-
ity to withstand to undergo changes. Some authors suggest
that teeth are better sources of DNA than skeleton bones.
DNA is found in vascular pulp, odontoblastic process, ac-
cessory canals, and cellular cementum (14).
Dental pulp can also be used for DNA analysis and is
good source for determination of blood groups. The pres-
ence of ABO blood grouping antigens in soft and hard
tissues make possible to determine blood group of highly
decomposed remains (17). The DNA from the teeth is not
only acts for primary identification but it can also be used
as reference sample to relate the other tissue fragments.
FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION AND FACIAL
SUPERIMPOSITION
The technique where face is constructed on bare bone
of the skull. In most of cases the post-mortem profile does
not elicit the identity of the deceased so it may be impor-
tant to reconstruct the individuals appearance during life
(11). Forensic artist utilizes the ante mortem photograph of
dental profile to help in facial reconstruction.
In most of cases the clues found on the crime site can
be helpful to construct the face like dress size, other cloth-
ing may indicate the gender of the individual, hair may be
present, skin tag to determine the color and racial species
(18).
Eyeglasses, hearing aids and condition of teeth can
give idea about the age of the patient. But this technique
requires the availability of suitable ante-mortem photo-
graphs showing the teeth. Many authors suggest this tech-
nique as under development, unscientific and unaccept-
able. But it is surely another tool for identification (10).
AGE ESTIMATION BASED ON DENTAL DATA
The need for age estimation has increased in recent
years because there is increase in numbers of unidentified
cadavers and human remain especially in metropolitan cit-
ies and age estimation for living individuals who do not
have valid proof of date of birth with them (9).
Dental ageing technique can be broken down into two
categories (10).
1) Developmental changes: Developmental changes
that occur to the human dentition while the teeth are grow-
ing and emerging into the oral cavity.
2) Degenerative changes: That occur once the teeth
have erupted and begin to wear down.
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1) Developmental changes
a) HARD TISSUE FORMATION
Tooth formation begins at a very early stage of life
by six month. The sequence of formation and eruption of
teeth with give a precise age estimation method. In this
method, each tooth is scored based on its developmental
stage and scores are compared with values corresponding
to a particular age (11).
For example: a deciduous second incisor crown that is
fully formed and is recovered adjacent to a deciduous sec-
ond incisor crown that is only complete suggest a single
individual of age less than 6 months (20). But, if complete
deciduous second molar is found in association with these
2 teeth, then it may represent that there are more than 1
individual. This is used if dentition is completed and not
applicable if there is missing teeth due to cases etc (13).
b) DENTAL ERUPTION
Human dentition has 2 eruption stages and their as-
sociated ages. To assess the age of unknown individual,
we can compare the postmortem radiographs of the indi-
vidual to the eruption standards produced by the Schour
and Massler (11).
c) THIRD MOLAR ERUPTION
Third molar emergence tends to be around 17-19 years
of age. This tooth has high variations, may be completely
developed but impacted or it may be completely absent.
Only radiograph can be the give the accurate document of
this tooth (10).
d) DENTAL MEASUREMENT
This technique was an alternative to the qualitative as-
sessment where the length of tooth was measured
2) Degenerative changes
That occurs once the teeth have erupted and begin to
wear down. There is an intuitive connection between tooth
wear and age, as those with more wear tend to be older. We
can use volume of pulp cavity because its seen that the
volume of pulp cavity reduces due to deposition of second-
ary dentine with ageing (8).
Age estimation is the important part in forensic odon-
tology because human dentition follows a reliable and pre-
dictable developmental sequence.
SEX DETERMINATION
Sex determination is very important subdivision of
forensic odontology, which plays a major role in identi-
fication of the unknown individuals in natural disasters;
chemical and nuclear bomb explosion scenarios
It can be done by four methods (11):
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 PERUSAL ON FORENSIC DENTISTRY
1) Craniofacial morphology and dimension: The mor-
phology of the skull and mandible, pattern formed by six
traits those are mastoid, supraorbital ridge, size and archi-
tecture of the skull, zygomatic extensions, nasal aperture,
and mandible gonial angle and Frontal sinus dimension are
taken into consideration.
2) Sex difference in tooth dimension: Sex determination
by measuring mesiodistal and buccolingual dimensions
is most simple and reliable method for sex determination.
Both the dimensions are more in male than in female.
3) Tooth morphology: In male, the distal accessory
ridge in canines is more prominent than in female. In fe-
male, there is less number of cusps in mandibular first mo-
lar (distobuccal or distal). These features can be because of
evolutionary reduction in the female lower jaw size.
4) Sex determination by DNA analysis: The study by
Das and his associates stated that the sex determination
could be obtained from the studying the X and Y-chromo-
somes upto four weeks of the death.
BITE MARK
The bite mark is defined as the physical alteration in
or on a medium caused by the contact of teeth. In few of
criminal cases it is seen that suspect or victim has left his
or her teeth marks on another person or inanimate object
(4). The concept of bite mark evidence is interesting and is
there from Roman times.
There will be an outer edge of arches along with se-
ries of abrasion, with or without laceration that reflects the
size, shape and arrangement of class characteristics of in-
cisal or occlusal surfaces of dentition (8).
In more aggressive bites -The assailant may suck the
soft tissues into the mouth so that images of palatal
and incisal surfaces of teeth may appear. Bites show
laceration of tissue and petechial hemorrhages in the
center of the wound.
In less aggressive bites -the skin may not be com-
pletely penetrated so there can be oval mark mostly
of anterior teeth.
Bite marks change over a time on living as well as dead.
If the bite is on living person there will be post injury chang-
es in the tissue, where bleeding, swelling and discoloration
can be seen. If the bite is on dead Person, then photographs
of marks are taken with standardized technique.
Bites on objects
If bite is present on objects such as apple, beer, choco-
late etc. often yields more information because of lack of
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distortion of the material and we can obtain a good im-
pression of biting edges. Taking swabs from this object is
very necessary because it may reveal the blood group is
the assailant and DNA analysis is possible (13).
Lip print
Cheiloscopy is a forensic investigation that deals with
identification of human based on lip traces. Lip print wrin-
kle pattern has individual characteristics same as finger
prints (20). The wrinkles and grooves on the labial mucosa
form a characteristic pattern called lip prints. The presence
or absence of a person from the crime can be verified based
on lip prints since the lip prints being uniform throughout
the life. The 1967 Santos was the first person to classify lip
grooves. There are four types of lip grooves (13).
Straight line
Curved line
Angled line
Sine shaped line
For collection, development and recording of lip prints
a uniform and standard procedure has to be developed
which helps ensuring comparison.
CONCLUSION
This article aims to provide an overview into the im-
portance of forensic odontology with an emphasis various
methods how to do so. DNA profiling provides informa-
tion regarding physical characteristics, ethnicity and sex
determination. Forensic odontology is that branch forensic
medicine has established itself as an important and indis-
pensable service in medico legal matters toward the cre-
ation of justice and secures society for the future inhabit-
ants.
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