Essay On Forensic Dentistry

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All humans have an identity in life. The identification of living or deceased persons using the unique traits and characteristics of the teeth and jaws is a cornerstone of forensic science. Forensic dentistry is defined in many different ways. One of the simple definitions is that forensic dentistry represents the overlap between the dental and the legal professions. Forensic dentistry plays a major role in the identification of those individuals who cannot be identified by visual or any other means.1 Identification of an individual is based on the theory that all individuals are unique. By classifying the individual into characteristic groups like age, sex, race, height the possibilities are narrowed.2 Age is a prime criteria for identification of both living persons and dead bodies, which in turn is of paramount importance in forensic practice. Estimating age from teeth is generally reliable as they are naturally preserved long after all the tissues and even bones have …show more content…

Over the years different methods have been proposed for age estimation via human biological characteristics. Among the various methods proposed, Gustafson’s morpho-histologic approach is most popularly used in estimating age using teeth.9 Studies using Gustafson’s six parameters found that translucency of dentin was best suited for age estimation when used indivisually.10 Tomes was the pioneer to describe dentin translucency. He showed that translucency is the result of the consolidation of the dentinal tubules and it was noticed by him that if the air in the dentinal tubules is replaced by water, the translucency of the tooth increases.9 Czermak was of the opinion that various types of translucency arose due to equalization of the normally different refractive indices of the tubules and of the calcified dentine