Lecture 5 and 6 - Forensic Odontology Flashcards

1
Q

What are 3 things odontologists investigate?

A
  • Identification
  • Oro-facial trauma
  • Dental issues
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2
Q

What are the 3 principles of identification?

A
  • Unique (Each human being is unique)
  • Macroscopic or microscopic (details are required to individualize)
  • Monozygotic twins can be distinguished
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3
Q

What are 2 traditional methods of identification?

A
  • Visual (viewing of the deceased by family or friends)
  • Property (presence of ID, registered vehicle)
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4
Q

What are 4 scientific methods of identification?

A
  • Fingerprints
  • Medical (implants etc)
  • Dental
  • DNA
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5
Q

What does odontology rely on?

A

Pattern recognition and matching

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6
Q

What is the overall result of odontolgy dependant on?

A
  • Value of pattern
  • Skills of examiner
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7
Q

What does odontology require?

A

Team approach for quality control and validation

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8
Q

What techniques does odontology use?

A

All techniques from visual to DNA

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9
Q

How is value of pattern determined?

A
  • Amount of detail
  • Rate of occurrence (of features present in a population)
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10
Q

When is visual identification not possible?

A
  • Incineration
  • Decomposition
  • Facial trauma
  • Skeletonization
  • Multiple fatalities
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11
Q

Why teeth and dental identification?

A
  • Individual patterns (everyone’s teeth are different)
  • Introduced artefacts (dental treatment like fillings)
  • Resist destruction
  • Dental data
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12
Q

What are 3 dental limitations to identificaiton?

A
  • Lack of searchable database: location of records
  • Insufficient detail
  • Lack of statistics
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13
Q

Why might there be lack of searchable database? (dental limitations)

A
  • Long time since dentist visit
  • Records kept for limited time, destroyed afterwards
  • Family may be unaware of which dentist was seen
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14
Q

Why might there be insufficient detail? (dental limitations)

A
  • No dental treatment, lack of distinctive feature
  • Limited record keeping by dentists (antemortem)
  • Not recovered well teeth (postmortem)
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15
Q

Why might there be lack of statistics? (dental limitations)

A
  • No information (re frequencies of occurrence of features or the relationship of features to each other)
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16
Q

What is the summary of procedure for odontologists in Australia?

A
  • Incident occurs
  • Scene attendance (if required)
  • Search for antemortem records by police
  • Postmortem examination of remains
  • Collate and transcribe antemortem records
  • Compare postmortem and antemortem information
  • Reconcile discrepancies
  • Conclusion and report
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17
Q

What are some difficulties collecting dental data?

A
  • Deceased beneath collapsed structures
  • Commingling with other individuals and pets
  • Fragile remains
  • Knowing what to look for (dislodged crowns, fillings and roots)
18
Q

What are some possible sources of antemortem dental data?

A
  • Home
  • Family
  • Dentist referring to latest dentist
  • Doctor
19
Q

What is a common way antemortem dental data is recorded?

A
  • Written notes
  • Dental charts
  • Photos
  • X rays
  • Dental appliances (dentures etc)
  • Stone model
  • Medical images
  • Photos for social media
20
Q

What is the aim for postmortem dental examination?

A

Record all possible information about the dentition, while maintaining respect for the deceased and their family

21
Q

What are some considerations for postmortem dental examination?

A
  • Need for good access and vision
  • Increasing use of tooth-coloured restorations, which are often difficult to see or to determine the extent of coverage
  • Better education has led to less restorative work increasing the reliance on anatomical and morphological features
22
Q

What is another postmortem procedure?

A

DNA collection (tooth)

23
Q

How is DNA collection of the tooth carried out?

A
  • Healthy Molar teeth preferred or as directed by FSSA biology
  • Use sterile gloves and instruments, facemask and hair net to avoid surface contamination
  • Place in sealed, labeled screw-top specimen jar and arrange for delivery to forensic biology
  • If skeletal material, may need to remove buccal and lingual bone to allow extraction without breaking roots
24
Q

What is reconciliation?

A

Comparing of postmortem and antemortem details

25
Q

How is reconciliation carried out?

A
  • Charting
  • Casts
  • Photographs
  • Radiographs
26
Q

What to consider when reconciling?

A
  • Always look to exclude (are there any features that you can not reconcile between AM and PM)
  • Anatomical features
  • Morphological features (crown and root shape and size)
27
Q

What areas could be looked at to exclude when reconciling?

A
  • Tooth number
  • Restorations (position, shape, material, pins)
28
Q

What part of the tooth is more fragile and more likely to get destroyed?

A

Crown of the teeth (more fragile than root)

29
Q

What are possible results of reconciliation after all features have been compared?

A
  • Unable to be reconciled (elimination)
  • Concordant (match)
  • Able to be reconciled (possible match)
  • Not available in both data sets (non-informative)
30
Q

When will a tooth have a greater weight?

A

When it has highly unusual features

31
Q

What are 6 possible causes of discrepant (different) features?

A
  • Lack of data (AM records, PM damage)
  • Growth and development
  • Progress of dental disease
  • Further treatment since last recorded
  • Debonding of adhesive restorations
  • Charting error (nomenclature)
32
Q

What are the 5 concluding interpol codes?

A
  • Established identification
  • Probable identification
  • Possible identification
  • Insufficient evidence
  • Exclusion
33
Q

Interpol code: What does established identification mean?

A

The postmortem and antemortem data match in sufficient detail to establish that they are from the same individual, there are no irreconcilable discrepancies

34
Q

Interpol code: What does probable identification mean?

A

Specific characteristics correspond between PM and AM data but are both limited

35
Q

Interpol code: What does possible identification mean?

A

There is nothing that excludes the identity but PM or AM data are both minimal

36
Q

Interpol code: What does insufficient evidence mean?

A

The available information is insufficient to form the basis for a conclusion

37
Q

Interpol code: What does exclusion mean?

A

The PM and AM data are clearly inconsistent

38
Q

What are some pattern injuries?

A
  • Human bite injury (on humans, objects)
  • Animal bite injury (on human AM or PM, other animals, objects)
39
Q

When do human bites often happen?

A
  • Assaults
  • Sexual assaults
  • Child abuse
  • Offensive/defensive
40
Q

What are possible outcomes of observing bite marks?

A
  • Variable (unpredictable presentation)
  • No definitive attribution
  • May eliminate a suspect
  • May corroborate or negate victim statement
  • Species identification
    (bite marks are not the most useful for victim identification)
41
Q

What 5 disasters were talked about?

A
  • Bali
  • Boxing day tsunami
  • Victorian bushfires
  • Black Saturday
  • Malaysian airlines MH17
    As the years went on and disasters happened, the equipment and setup for victim identification and forensic odontology improved