If they don’t know who you are they can’t go to YOUR dentist, right? Is there a National database that stores all of our our bitewings – I don’t remember consenting to that! And teeth look a lot alike on those X-rays – do you need special training to tell one set apart from another?
In: 1811
It’s called Forensic Odontology and it should never be used for bite mark evidence but it can be used to identify a body. It’s a debunked science
[Innocence Project](https://innocenceproject.org/what-is-bite-mark-evidence-forensic-science/)
(didn’t we get this question like a month ago?)
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.
In Australia, a forensic odontologist (dentist with additional post-graduate training) typically does the comparison between the dental radiographs of the deceased and those supplied by the dental clinic. I actually knew a lady who did this!
I know with military personnel they take a pantograph x-ray of every soldier specifically for remains identification. These days in sure they’ve added DNA to the database as well.
How accurate is this for body ID? My friend was identified this way but was found with his front teeth knocked out. How can they be sure it’s him if part of the proof they need is missing?????
They’re like any other kind of record, when you drop the needle onto the tooth it starts to play and tells you everything about the person whose head the tooth came from
So technically if I never went to a dentist and became a serial killer and faked my own death using someone’s body who also never went to a dentist , I can successfully escape the police?
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.
Can we be sure that confirmations are only run through dentists? I want to say so yet it is well known the government has illegally gathered information then built a case through parallel construction so I wonder whether dental records are secure
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