OPF Forensic Dentistry (Ch19) Flashcards
(37 cards)
What is an area of dentistry concerned with correct management, examination, evaluation and presentation of dental evidence in criminal or civil legal proceedings in the interest of justice?
Forensic Dentistry
What are 5 areas of forensic dentistry?
- Records management
- Identification of deceased
- Bite pattern evidence
- Abuse
- Expert witness
Who must keep accurate dental records to include doctor’s progress notes, study casts, photographs, and radiographs?
All dentists
In dental forensics, comparison of a known object to an unknown object?
Dental identification
What are 6 reasons identification is necessary?
- Criminal
- Marriage
- Money
- Burial
- Social
- Closure
In dental forensics, what are 5 methods of identification?
- Personal recognition
- Fingerprints
- Dental exam
- Anthropologic examination of bones
- DNA
What is the easiest but least reliable method of identification?
Personal recognition
What is a specific and unique indentification pattern that does not change throughout life as teeth and supporting structures do, but can be destroyed or compromised in death and decomposition?
Fingerprints
What are the last things to be totally destroyed in decomposition?
Calcified structures (such as bones or teeth)
With respect to teeth, what can be used to determine the age of a child patient in an anthropologic exam?
Tooth calcification and eruption charts
What can be used with respect to teeth to approximate the age of an adult patient in anthropologic exam?
Tooth attrition, secondary dentin (pulp will be smaller), cementum apposition
What are some problems with using DNA analysis for identification?
It is slow, expensive, must have something to compare it with
What are some positives of dental identification?
Dental evidence remains for a long time postmortem, each tooth has 5 sides for multiple comparisons, dental materials hold up under heat and may have identifying marks
What are some problems with dental identification?
- Poor record keeping
2. Different tooth numbering systems
What are the 2 worst cases for dental identification?
Fully edentulous or full permanent dentition with no restorations
Where is missing persons data loaded?
FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC)
Post mortem charting begins with what?
Soft tissue removal for access
If the corpse has a mandible with sockets that are open, when was tooth loss suspected?
Post-mortem
What are some oral-facial means of identification?
Teeth Bone (tori, anomalies) Foreign bodies Sinus configuration Skull sutures Soft tissue (rugae and lip prints) Photographic comparison DNA (from pulp)
What are the 4 final reports from attempts to identify?
- Positive
- Presumptive
- Exclusion
- Insufficient
Ante mortem and post mortem data match is sufficient detail, with no unexplainable discreapancies, to establish that they are from the same individual
Positive identification
What is the term for when ante mortem and post mortem data have consistent features but, because of the quality of either the post mortem remains or the ante mortem evidence, it is not possible to establish identity positively?
Presumptive/ possible identification
What is the term for when ante mortem and post mortem data are clearly inconsistent?
Exclusion
What is the term for when available information is insufficient to form the basis for a conclusion?
Insufficient
