Forensic Dental Biometrics

After that they “analyze bones to determine the victim's biological profile” as it is said in “What is Forensic Anthropology” by R.U. Steinberg.

Nigel Hunt discusses the future of crime scene investigations within Australia in his article ‘The DNA

In other words, dental records are compared to teeth found to get a positive identification made. Dental records can find the age and many other biological features. In the text it states,”After that comes establishing a positive identification. The most common is dental records because almost all of us have been to a dentist and have had X-rays of our mouths.” This shows in cases where teeth are found the most common way forensic scientists use them is to establish an identity and biological profile.With this in mind, the text also states,”....because almost all of have been to a dentist and have X-rays of our mouths. But also DNA is important.” This shows that teeth help victim identification through data analysis. Lastly, anthropologist work with odontologist to help identify a

When individuals are discovered disfigured or in a highly decomposed state without fingerprints. This is making identification more complex and time-consuming [46].

Forensic odontologists are experienced medical professionals, who are trained dentist that help identify unknown remains through dental records. Forensic odontology offers the widest variety of working conditions out of all of the other dental specialties. Forensic odontologists have been an essential aspect in helping identify skeletal remains. Sometimes all that is left behind for evidence is the teeth of the subject. With only this evidence to work with, the odontologist is called upon to process the remains. Since teeth are made of enamel, the hardest substance the body produces, and can survive severe conditions and still be viable for analysis, they become a significant piece of evidence used in the identification of unknown subjects. .Even though teeth are just another part of the skull, the amount of info in one tooth makes it a subject unto itself .

Statistics have proven that dentists have one of the highest suicide rates out of all of the other occupations in America. Dentists' jobs can be very repetitive. For the most part, they perform the same procedures in the same environment every day. Their patients can often be boring or hard to deal with, and worst of all they will deal with patients looking to sue for dental malpractice. If bad enough, this can put them out of business. As many people know, there are dental specialties such as; orthodontists, prosthodontists, pedodonists, periodontists, and oral and maxillofacial surgeons. The most unrecognized dental specialty is forensic odontology. Forensic odontologists are dentists that work in the field of forensic science.

Dental biometrics used in forensic science for human identification. It utilizes the observations divinity by dental radiographs for human identification. This observations contains the tooth contours, the relative positions of adjacent teeth, and the shapes of the dental work (e.g., crowns, fillings and bridges).This paper includes various method used for dental biometrics and related information. Dental biometrics needs antemortem (AM) and postmortem (PM) radiographs for finding unidentified subject. Proposed method consists of three main processing stages: (i) feature extraction, (ii) creation of a dental code and (iii) matching.

“Fingerprint recognition is one of the divorce inference using the impressions made by the minute ridge formations or patterns found on the fingertips. No two people have exactly the same arrangement of the ridge patterns, and the remaining patterns of any one individual unchanged. Fingerprints infallible provide a means of personal identification. Other personal characteristics may change, but not fingerprints”. (1)

Every time somebody touches something, they leave behind a unique signature that forever links them to that object. This link is their fingerprints, which are unique to every person, for no two people have the same set, not even family members or identical twins. Palms and toes also leave prints behind, but these are far less commonly found during crime scene investigations. Therefore, fingerprints provide an identification process that is applicable to background checks, biometric security, mass disaster identification, and most importantly, crime scene investigations. Fingerprints are so differentiated because they are made up of distinct patterns of ridges and furrows on the fingers. The ridges are the “raised” portions of the prints, and the furrows are the “recessed” portions. This perceived uniqueness has led some people to falsely accept fingerprint analysis as absolute scientific fact. Although overall fingerprints are reliable, there are definitely situations where their accuracy can come into question.

will also need 4 years of additional training in the forensic dentistry such as hands on and as an assistant to gain more knowledge. The study of dental anatomy, pathology and being able to interpret radiographs will come in handy when studying odontology. In most cases, forensic odontologist will perform forensic examinations as needed from the law enforcement or medical examiner. Many work long hours, weekends and holidays due to crimes happen at any time. According to research, forensic dentist earn a salary of up to $146,290.

Biometrics technology aims at utilizing major and distinctive characteristics such as behavioral or biological, for the sake of positively indentifying people. With the help of a combination of hardware and specific identifying sets of rules, a basic human attribute, automated biometric recognition mimics to distinguish and categorize other people as individual and unique. But the challenges surrounding biometrics are great as well.

Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physical or behavioral characteristic (2001). Essentially, biometric security technologies are used to accurately identify individuals on a unique trait. The most common biometric security techniques used currently are: signature

Baby teeth are labeled with letters, A to K or they can also be identified by a mixture of letters and numbers; for example, 1D, 2D, 3D and the pattern continues. The Palmer Method is another labeling system that uses L like figures(symbols) to identify the quadrant that a tooth is located in and is followed by a number that specifies the position of the tooth to the midline. Tooth identification can either be easy or difficult; for example, if a dentist does not have dental records, then the investigation can be a bit of a challenge, but if the odontologist has dental records and the suspect has few teeth or damage teeth then the investigation can be facilitated. DNA can also be extracted from the skin or a bite mark if it contains saliva or blood; it can also be retrieved from the pulp of the tooth. One way odontologist collect evidence is by taking a photograph and making a plaster cast of the bite mark. If the evidence is jeopardized, then the evidence is unreliable. Although bit marks can tell a lot about a person they can also be flawed or misleading. There are countless examples of people who have been convicted from bite mark analysis and later exonerated by DNA evidence. Therefore bite marks are not 100 percent accurate. I also

The technology is many years away from development. Blood pulses on a finger can be measured by new biometric systems. This technology is currently under development. Nail bed identification is based on identifying distinct spatial arrangement beneath the fingernail. Gait recognition is another technology which is under development. This recognizes individuals by their distinctive walk and captures a sequence of images to derive and analyze motion characteristics. The technology is currently under development and its complete potential and limitations can be fully assessed. Many biometric identification systems are being developed and tested (Woodward, 2005).

The final main biometric technology used is fingerprint recognition. This is definitely the most widely used biometric technology. This type of biometric has been used for many, many years. Because of this, fingerprint recognition has been known as the most primary and accurate identification method used to identify a person. The modern fingerprint recognition is all done electronically. There are two main ways of analyzing fingerprints electronically. The first plots points on the ridges of a person’s fingers that enable the computer to compare to different fingerprints. The second method uses patterns of a fingerprint