FORENSIC DENTAL DENTOLOGY
1/.INTRODUCTION-DEFINITION
- Forensic dentistry is a branch of forensic medicine concerned with the study of teeth and jaws.
- The dental expert is an auxiliary of justice.
- participates in the identification of subjects found dead and whose identity is unknown, or those for whom identification by relatives or by fingerprints is impossible.
- It intervenes regardless of whether the cause of death is natural or suspicious, whether the subject was discovered individually or whether it is a mass catastrophe.
- He can also respond to a mission concerning the study of bite marks carried by a victim, living or deceased, in cases of assault or child abuse.
- Road accidents, assaults, accidents occurring during dental treatment are the subject of requests to the courts to obtain compensation for the damage suffered.
- The dental expert will then be responsible for providing the magistrate with the technical elements that will be necessary to render his judgment.
2/.HISTORY
- The founder of legal odonto-stomatology is AMODEO with his “Dental Art in Legal Medicine” published in 1898.
- But from 1477: identification of Charles the Bold (by the absence of lower incisors lost during a fall from a horse).
- In 1880, the remains of Napoleon III’s son killed in Zululand could only be identified by his dentist.
- The fires at the Ringtheater in Vienna in 1878, the Opéra Comique in 1887 and the Bazar de la Charité on May 4, 1897, were to be the origin of identification techniques.
3/.THE TOOTH IS AN INTERESTING TOOL FOR THE FORENSICIAN
- Extreme resistance qualities
- Enamel is the hardest tissue in the body.
- The tooth resists carbonization, immersion, putrefaction, trauma by physical or chemical agents.
- The tooth is an individual marker
- It retains (unlike bone which undergoes remodeling) its individual characteristics throughout life.
- The study of dental tissues makes it possible to determine whether isolated fragments come from the same individual.
- The histological study provides discriminatory indices and establishes a dental age range.
4/.THE TOOTH IS THE DNA
- The tooth is a source of DNA that can be used in genetic fingerprinting.
5/.ROLE OF THE DENTIST IN THE MEDICO-LEGAL TEAM
5.1 / Participation in identifications
- individual
- in mass disaster reconstructive study
- or comparative study
5.2 / Determination of dental age
- in the living
- in the corpse
5.3 / Study of bites
- human or animal
- recording of bite marks and analysis
- comparative study with teeth of a suspect
5.4 / Screening for child abuse
5.5 / Assessment of dental damage
6/.DENTAL IDENTIFICATION AND MASS DISASTER
- Dental identification is part of multidisciplinary identification work.
- On site, the dentist participates in the preservation and collection of dental indices:
- The conclusions of the dental study are compared with the other elements involved in the identification (during daily summary meetings) before concluding on a positive identification.
- Using software can be useful when the number of victims is high.
- The software cannot carry out the comparative study of radiographic documents, a study which remains decisive and requires the intervention of a dentist.
7/.DENTAL IDENTIFICATION METHODOLOGY
- observations on the corpse with post-mortem dental record
– Photographs
– X-rays
– Taking samples from the jaws
- Reconstructive identification to guide research into ante-mortem dental records: – dental record
– dental x-rays.
FORENSIC DENTAL DENTOLOGY
8/.DENTAL IDENTIFICATION POST-MORTEM STUDY
==> Autopsy time
– photographs with graduated marker
– x-rays
– jaw samples
===> Establishment of the post-mortem dental record For each tooth note
* presence or absence
* anomalies in shape, position , color, degree of wear
* fractures, cracks, diastema, mylolysis, periodontal condition
* ethnic or professional characteristics
* state of restoration (amalgams, composites, resins, etc.)
===> Prosthetics
FORENSIC DENTAL DENTOLOGY
9/.CONCLUSION
- Forensic medicine, with all these branches, needs the hand of orthodontists and dental stomatologists to carry out its work.
- For this, the knowledge of the people concerned by the specialty is required and their task becomes very important.
FORENSIC DENTAL DENTOLOGY
Baby teeth need to be taken care of to prevent future problems.
Periodontal disease can cause teeth to loosen.
Removable dentures restore chewing function.
In-office fluoride strengthens tooth enamel.
Yellowed teeth can be treated with professional whitening.
Dental abscesses often require antibiotic treatment.
An electric toothbrush cleans more effectively than a manual toothbrush.