Forensic (from the Latin word forum) means ‘court of law’. Odontology refers to study of teeth. Federation Dentaire Interrnational (FDI) thus defines Forensic Odontology as ‘that branch of dentistry which deals with the proper handling and examination of dental evidence and with the proper evaluation and presentation of dental findings in the interest of justice’ (by Keiser-Neilson). Forensic dentistry / odontology, the application of dentistry to legal issues, is a relatively new aspect of forensic science. The major fields of activity of forensic odontology can be divided in to civil, criminal and research (Avon). Traditionally, forensic odontology covered various topics that can be broadly classified in to human identification and injury analysis especially of bite marks. However, field of forensic odontology have broadened in recent years to cover issues related to child abuse and domestic violence, human rights protection and professional ethics.
Identification-
Human dentition is almost as unique to an individual as fingerprints that it is considered as hard tissue analog to the fingerprints. Wide variety of manipulations such as restorations done on the dentition also adds to its uniqueness. The pillars of forensic odontology itself are based on theory that ‘no two mouths are alike’. Teeth are also one of the most…show more content… Dental aging in elderly relies on changes that take place in aging teeth, such as attrition, cementum formation and root transparency (Gustafson’s formula). Gustafson assigned different scores on scale from 0 to 3 for each of these parameters. By adding these scores an overall score is obtained which is linearly related to an estimated age. However, dental age estimation by these methods, after 18 to 20 years of age, is usually unreliable because those age-related changes can be influenced by various factors, such as diet, dental treatment