A comparative study of overlay generation methods in bite mark analysis

Dental Radiographic/Digital Radiography Technology along with Biological Agents in Human Identification

The heavy casualties associated with mass disasters necessitate substantial resources to be managed. The unexpectedly violent nature of such occurrences usually remains a problematic amount of victims that urgently require to be identified by a reliable and economical method. Conventional identification methods are inefficient in many cases such as plane crashes and fire accidents that have damaged the macrobiometric features such as fingerprints or faces. An appropriate recognition method for such cases should use features more resistant to destruction. Forensic dentistry provides the most appropriate available method for the successful identification of victims using careful techniques and precise data interpretation. Since bones and teeth are the most persistent parts of the demolished bodies in sudden mass disasters, scanning and radiographs are unrepeatable parts of forensic dentistry. Forensic dentistry as a scientific method of human remain identification has been considerably referred to be efficient in disasters. Forensic dentistry can be used for either "sex and age estimation," "Medical biotechnology techniques," or "identification with dental records," etc. The present review is aimed at discussing the development and implementation of forensic dentistry methods for human identification. For this object, the literature from the last decade has been searched for the innovations in forensic dentistry for human identification based on the PubMed database.

Digitization in forensic odontology: A paradigm shift in forensic investigations

Forensic dentistry deals with proper handling, examination, and evaluation of dental records, which are then presented in the interest of law for justice. It plays a major role in identification of deceased individuals who cannot be identified visually or by other means after mass disasters or crimes. Digital forensics has revolutionized the traditional forensic investigations in terms of acquisition, analysis, and reporting of forensic evidence and its application is becoming common in the mass disasters, earthquakes, and terrorism. Sophistication of software and advent of digital technologies such as computers, computer-aided design computer-aided manufacturing systems, digital records, facial reconstruction, touch-free autopsy, and virtopsy has resulted in quick identification and extraction of a large amount of data with reduced sampling bias. This paper focuses on the evolution of forensic dentistry for effective detection and resolution of medico-legal matters and also highlights the use of comparison microscopes and new robotic tools by few forensic laboratories for automation of deoxyribonucleic acid sampling processes for human identification.

A comparative study of three commonly used two-dimensional overlay generation methods in bite mark analysis

Aim:

The present study attempts to compare the bite mark overlays generated by three different methods. The objectives of the study were to compare the three commonly used techniques for overlay generation and to evaluate the interobserver reliability in assessing bite marks by these methods.

Materials and Methods:

Overlays were produced from the biting surfaces of six upper and six lower anterior teeth of 30 dental study models using the following three methods: (a) Hand tracing from wax impressions, (b) radiopaque impression method and (c) computer-based method.

Results:

The computer-based method was found to be the most accurate method. Of the two hand tracing methods, radiopaque wax impression method was better than the wax impression method for overlay generation.

Conclusions:

It is recommended that forensic odontologists use computerized method, but the use of hand tracing overlays in bite mark comparison cases using radiopaque wax impression method can also be done where sophisticated software and trained persons in forensic odontology are not available.