In theory, when a missing person is entered into NCIC (US national database of missing/wanted persons/stuff) things like dental info, fingerprints, even DNA can be entered. If the data exists and the reporting person provides it, there are places to enter it. Most reporting people however don’t seem to even know the missing’s blood type, so you can guess how often that happens.
If an unidentified body (or body part) turns up, it can also be entered into NCIC with as much data as is available. The system then runs cross checks of other Person’s files and notifies the entering agencies of possible matches.
I don’t know what they do in other countries, but in South Korea, there’s a national health insurance database of medical records. If one had surgery on their jaw, it is possible to get the list of those who got the surgery. In case one got rare surgeries, it becomes easier.
Plus, there’s a network of dentists and denturists. If someone can recognize teeth, it is extremely helpful. Finally, medical records themselves can be helpful. For example, if a person had lost his first molar 10 years ago, it is highly possible that the body without its first molar would not be the person.
Sometimes, other pieces of information can be given by records. Teeth can tell lots of information, such as age, nutrition, where he lived, and what he usually ate. For example, eating lots of sunflower seeds can mark a black line on one’s front tooth. By using such a information, it would be possible to narrow down where the body came from.
The other thing is – Forensic Odontology in terms of bite patterns is pure bunkum. You cannot use a bite pattern on a medium be it flesh, apple, cheese sandwich to identify a person. It used to be thought possible, and there were even convictions – but these fell out of favour, and eventually ended in exonorations.
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