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Forensic odontology

From Volume 44, Issue 11, December 2017 | Pages 1042-1048

Authors

John Robson

BDS, DipFOd, DipFHID, JP

Senior Forensic Odontologist, DVI Manager, Weymouth Road, Evercreech, Somerset BA4 6JB, UK

Articles by John Robson

Abstract

Abstract: Forensic Odontology (or Forensic Dentistry) can be defined as the branch of dentistry that addresses the proper handling and examination of dental evidence and the evaluation and presentation of dental findings in the interests of justice. In the UK, this usually involves solicitors, barristers, coroners, coroner's officers and the police, and can require appearances and/or presentations and/or formal reports to Crown Courts, Magistrate's Courts, Coroner's Courts and occasionally Civil Courts. Forensic odontologists often work abroad and therefore must be adaptable to the demands and limitations of foreign jurisdictions in relation to international criminal proceedings, suspicious deaths and mass fatality events.

CPD/Clinical Relevance: Forensic odontology depends on meticulous record-keeping and accuracy.

Article

Forensic odontology plays a narrow but important role in the modern forensic armoury. Put basically and simply the discipline can be divided into four areas:

In this first article only identification will be discussed.

Identification using dental data is not new. Historically, forensic dentistry has played a major role in identification methods. As far back as AD 50 in the time of the Emperor Nero, records show that his mistress's battered body was identified by her teeth. Other important historical incidents such as the ‘Paris Bazaar Fire’ (1898), the ‘Pyjama Girl Case’ (1934), ‘Dr Buck Ruxton Murders’ (1935), the ‘Identification of Adolf Hitler’ (1945) and the ‘Haigh Acid Bath Case’ (1949) illustrate the long history of association between forensic investigation and dental evidence. Some of these benchmark cases may be covered in detail in future articles. But this is not just a process relegated to the long-gone past, forensic odontology continues to play a pivotal role in not only the identification of the deceased, but also the prosecution of the perpetrators, for example Ted Bundy (1974) and Rosemary and Fred West (1994).

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