Identification of the dead body is very important before we can release the body to the family. Forensic medicine is a branch in medicine that help in identification of the dead body as well as the cause and manner of death, the date and location and other information that cannot be obtained from ante mortem sources. In this topic, I would focus on the forensic odontology in identification of the dead body. As we know that the dead body cannot speak and tell us what was going on them before the death and has been waiting for us to investigate the case related to them, so that, we can produce sufficient evident to fight for them in criminal case. Why dental odontology one of the important branch? According to my lecturer, dr. Yudha, fingerprint, dental profile and DNA can be used as primary evidence whilst secondary evidences that can be used include visual, photography, properties and medic-anthropology data. Why teeth can provide a very useful information? This is because teeth are the hardest part in our body – the enamel. In many cases, teeth remain intact. The data can be collected from ante mortem as well as post mortem basis. As we know, we two phase in teeth development. The second phase is the development of permanent teeth that is usually develops in the first decade. Human basically can have up to 32 permanent teeth with 5 surfaces each. The surfaces can be either filled with restorative materials or not. Basically, people around the world do have visit to dentist at least once in their lifetime. The purpose of visiting varies such as just for routine check up, treatments or check for disorders. This may give the opportunity to dentist to develop a record of the patient regarding their teeth characteristics during life. Other than that, other data such as radiograph, study models and dental photographs can provide better ante mortem data to the forensic team. The effectiveness of the ante mortem data relies on many factors such as accuracy of the record and the storage of the data. In some places, data that are stored in the form of paper maybe destroyed by certain situation such as tsunami. But what happened when ante mortem data is not available even though we know that it has large contribution to the identification together with post mortem data? In this case, post mortem data alone can also contribute something such as the age of the person at time of death, socio-economic status, unusual oral habit and type of diets.
In mass disaster, there are usually many dead bodies presented at time. If only 12 bodies, it may be possible to use other method as combination. If the dead bodies are too many such as in the case of tsunami, what can we do to perform quick identification? Forensic odontology is the answer because it is simple and inexpensive method. Compared with DNA method, DNA method is very expensive, need sophisticated technology as well as need longer time. Moreover, the infrastructures as well as transportations are damaged during disaster, making the process of identification more difficult. For further info, it may be useful to refer to my previous post: unpredictable situation. How about birthmark analysis? What is the use of this? Basically, it can be used in crime scene investigation. It is can be used to differentiate whether the purpose of the perpetrator are sexual, child abuse or other assaults forms.
In conclusion, forensic odontology is a useful method in many cases such as mass disaster, domestic violence and child abuse. More specialist is need because we are now facing unpredictable natural and manmade disaster that cause mass disaster.
1. Amad, H.S. Forensic Odontology. [online accessed on November 26th 2010]
URL: http://www.smile-mag.com/art_files/Forensic_Odontology.pdf
2. Stavrianos, C. Et al. Application on Forensic Dentistry: Part 1. [online accessed on November 26th 2010]
URL: http://docsdrive.com/pdfs/medwelljournals/rjmsci/2010/179-186.pdf
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