Dental Identification
Definition
The process of comparing antemortem dental records (radiographs, charts, models) against postmortem dental findings to establish or exclude identity. When records are complete, this is one of the most reliable identification methods.
- Compares
- Antemortem records vs. postmortem findings
- Record types
- Radiographs, charts, models, photographs
- Reliability
- High when antemortem records are complete
- Common application
- Mass disaster and decomposed/skeletal remains
Common questions
Why is dental identification often preferred over other methods for decomposed remains?+
Teeth are far more resistant to decomposition, fire, and time than soft tissue, and a wide range of population-level dental records exist for comparison, so identification remains possible long after visual or fingerprint identification is no longer feasible.
What limits the reliability of a dental identification?+
The result depends entirely on the quality and completeness of the available antemortem records. Sparse, outdated, or absent records reduce a comparison to exclusion only, or to a possible rather than positive identification.
Related terms
- Bite-Mark Analysis
- A pattern-comparison discipline in which a forensic odontologist attempts to link a bite wound on a victim to the dentition of a...
- Conclusion Language
- The standardised five-level scale the ABFO recommends for bite-mark opinions: identification, consistent with, inconclusive, excluded, and unsuitable for comparison. Each level has...
- Daubert Standard
- The US federal evidentiary standard (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 1993) requiring that expert testimony be based on scientifically valid methods with...
- Expert Witness
- A person whose specialised knowledge is accepted by a court and who gives opinion evidence, not just factual evidence. Forensic auditors frequently...
- Frye Standard
- The US legal test for admissibility of scientific evidence, originating from Frye v. United States (1923), which required that a technique be...