Deoxyribonucleic acid profiling in forensic dental identification

Oral Cavity: A Forensic Kaleidoscope

Forensic odontology is an integral part of the multidisciplinary field of forensic sciences that requires specialized training and perceptive knowledge for its application in full potential. Forensic odontology deals with the evidence pertaining to the oral and paraoral structures. Dentists are equipped with knowledge of orofacial structures and their variations prevailing among different ancestry. By implicating the history of dental treatments to the identification process, dentists extract unique and accurate information that aids in forensic identification. Crimes such as child abuse and domestic violence are often identified by the dentists during routine dental examinations and this can be used as an evidence to discern malefactors in such cases. This article provides a collective review of applications and methods in forensic odontology that helps legal authorities in the identification of individuals.

Oral Pathology in Forensic Investigation

Forensic odontology is the subdiscipline of dentistry which analyses dental evidence in the interest of justice. Oral pathology is the subdiscipline of dentistry that deals with the pathology affecting the oral and maxillofacial regions. This subdiscipline is utilized for identification through oral and maxillofacial pathologies with associated syndromes, enamel rod patterns, sex determination using exfoliative cytology, identification from occlusal morphology of teeth, and deoxyribonucleic acid profiling from teeth. This subdiscipline is also utilized for age estimation studies which include Gustafson's method, incremental lines of Retzius, perikymata, natal line formation in teeth, neonatal line, racemization of collagen in dentin, cemental incremental lines, thickness of the cementum, and translucency of dentin. Even though the expertise of an oral pathologist is not taken in forensic investigations, this paper aims to discuss the role of oral pathology in forensic investigation.