Forensic Odontology Essay

INTRODUCTION
• The discipline of forensic odontology involves the application of extensive dental specific knowledge to legal and criminal issues. It focuses primarily on personal identification, mass disaster identification, age estimation and analysis of bite marks.
• The ideal forensic odontologist is a person

1. Who is educated in dentistry, has been trained in forensic odontology, is engaged in research in the same or related subject and has published papers to his credit
2. Who has been initiated to the specialty though the training and attachment for considerable time to renowned and experienced forensic odontologist in a respected dental institution where forensic odontology work is routine.
3. Who has acquired ample practical experience
Dentition or its parts.
2. Bite marks identification and that of the bitter.
3. Development and eruption of teeth for determination of age.
4. Profile development from dentition.

DENTITION AND ITS PARTS
• Forensic odontology is doing a Yeoman`s job in the identification of persons from skeletal remains from sources: drowned, burned, dismembered bodies found in various situations including those in mass murders and mass disasters like tsunami, fires or buried skeletons or parts thereof, bodies thrown in wells or pits, bodies or their parts from abundant bodies in deserted places like ravines, jungle,
The forensic odontologist who can carry out the following drill is eligible for the job:
1. Examines photographs, x rays, sketches, prepares casts, dentures transparencies and takes detailed notes of the questioned
2. Prepares positive casts from the negative casts procured from the dentist. Compares the positive casts with the questioned dentition.
3. Prepares transparencies from one of the casts and superimposes it on the corresponding casts. Superimposed casts are to prove match or non match f the dentition.
4. Generates complete dental profile chart of the questioned dentition and include all the identifying features of each tooth, pattern of the teeth and of the dentition as a whole.
5. Procures the ante-mortem dental data of the suspect which includes written notes, sketches, dental casts, denture and detail of the dental work done, with dates from the subjects dentist via police. The SIT chief obtains the dental data from the subjects, dentist with or without the help of a forensic odontologist.
6. Compares the prepared dental profile from the available dentition and other generated data with the data from the dentist’s record, tooth by tooth, corresponding combination of teeth and dentition. The preponderance of the alike or non-alike features decides identity or exclusion of the suspected