How Can Dental Records Help Identify a Body
How Experts Identify Crash Victims Through Dental Records
Dental records can be used to identify remains when no other options exist. Photo credit: Getty.
When medical examiners identify a torso afterwards a crash or disaster, dental records are sometimes all they accept to go on.
Teeth are incredibly durable. They can withstand heat up to 1,200 degrees, said Dr. Roy Sonkin, the forensic dentist who is the deputy borough master forensic odontologist at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York City. Consequently, they are frequently the simply identifiable feature left if a victim perishes in a automobile crash, such as the one that killed actor Paul Walker over the weekend, or if remains are exposed to the elements for a long period of time.
To make an ID, a forensic dentist compares the dental records from when a person was alive to photographs, X -rays and visual observation of a person'southward teeth after decease, Sonkin explained.
"The dentist methodically and meticulously goes over everything, tooth by tooth, comparing each crown, cavity, implant and "virgin" molar that has been untouched past a dentist," he said. "We oftentimes ask the family unit for photographs of the person grin for further confirmation."
This comparison is then checked past figurer, although some areas of the state all the same rely exclusively on a pen and newspaper approach, Sonkin said.
In cases where there is a "presumptive identification" and the person is known, confirming someone's identity is typically straightforward. If someone has been through a traumatic effect, the jaw and teeth may be fragmented, making identification more than difficult though usually not incommunicable, Sonkin said.
Sonkin noted identifying dental remains tin can exist a gut-wrenching process for family and friends. And, he said, equally a dentist he often feels a connection to the person he is tasked with identifying.
"You ever call back that this is someone's loved one," he said. "That tin weigh on you emotionally."
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/12/02/how-experts-identify-crash-victims-through-dental-records
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