Importance of dental identification in forensic sciences

International Conference on Forensic Research & Technology

October 15-17, 2012 DoubleTree by Hilton Chicago-Northshore, USA

Sanjayagouda B. Patil

AcceptedAbstracts: J Forensic Res

Abstract :

The FDI defines Forensic Odontology as the branch of dentistry which, in the interest of justice, deals with the proper handling and examination of the dental evidence, and with proper evaluation and presentation of the dental findings. It plays a major role in the identification of the person in the natural and manmade disasters. Dental evidence may be crucial even in the crime detection. Acharya and Taylor have defined identity as the characteristics by which a person may be recognized. There have been many traditional methods of identification like recognizing the body and person by clothing, jewellery which may not always be reliable. While a number of physical features can be used for identification, dental hard tissues being the hardest of all the body tissues have a significant role in human identification. Dental identification has been defined as the total of all characteristics of teeth and their associated structures which, while not individually unique, when considered together provide a unique totality. Dental identification is of two types namely the comparative identification and reconstructive identification. The comparative identification deals with the comparison of the dead individual?s teeth with his presumed dental records. Whereas the reconstructive identification deals with dental profiling, that attempts to establish the ethnicity, gender, age, occupation of the dead individual; this is usually employed when no clues exist about the identity of the deceased. This paper highlights the various dental identification procedures and their role in forensic sciences.

Biography :

Sanjayagouda B. Patil is specialized in the subject of Prosthodontics with a MDS degree, from the Karnataka University, Dharwad. He completed his MFDS from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons from the University of Glasgow, UK in the year 2006. He has authored many articles in the International Journals and has also presented various papers at the national level. He is a reviewer for many peer reviewed journals related to forensic odontostomatology and prosthetic dentistry. He is presently working as a Professor and guide for the post graduate studies at Shri Hasanamba Dental College and Hospital, Hassan, Karnataka, India.