Dental Identification in Routine Forensic Casework: Clinical and Postmortem Investigations

• NCJ Number: 186699
• Journal: Legal Medicine Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2000 Pages: 7-14
• Author(s): Shigeki Sakoda; Bao-Li Zhu; Kaori Ishida; Shigeki Oritani; Masaki Q. Fujita; Hitoshi Maeda
• Date Published: March 2000
• Length: 8 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Japan

Annotation

This study examined the factors that may impede dental identification of unknown human remains and the practical value of dental evidence in routine forensic casework, including the changes due to dental treatment and postmortem interference.

Abstract

In the investigation of changes due to dental treatment on 696 patients' dental history at two clinics, the increase in the number of dental restorations was the greatest in the initial 1-2 years. This finding suggests that dental treatments performed early after the initial examination contribute more to forensic dental identification than those performed afterwards. The lower anterior teeth (incisors and canines) remained relatively unchanged for years compared with other teeth. The molars appeared to be more often restored at a relatively younger age, and they were more often missing in the elderly. The investigation of 260 unknown remains in 971 forensic autopsy cases during a period of 7 years (1992-98) at the authors' institute indicated the particular usefulness of dental evidence in cases in which the candidates were identified from some other evidence and usually in cases that had a postmortem period that corresponded to the obligatory preservation term for the clinical dental records and radiographic films. Identification was obstructed due to the status of dental treatments between ante-mortem dental findings due to additional treatments received after the last day of examination recorded in the corresponding clinical dental teeth. Postmortem damage from decomposition and fire was more often observed in the anterior teeth. These observations indicate that precise documentation of dental evidence -- including postmortem deterioration and the establishment of a well-organized dental database of missing persons, together with a suitable screening system -- is required to use dental evidence more effectively in routine forensic casework. 4 figures, 3 tables, and 29 references