The term “forensic” is from the Latin, meaning forum or a place where legal matters are discussed. Forensic medicine and dentistry (odontology) deal with the professional handling, examination, interpretation and presentation of medical and dental evidence that come before legal authorities. Although the MiriamWebster dictionary dates the term from 1659, a full text on the subject dates back to 6′h century China. Forensic identification techniques go back even further. In 45 AD, the Roman Emperor Nero used dental impressions to identify slaves; this practice continued throughout Europe and the United States during the slave trade. In 1867, Oscar Amoedo, an Italian dentist, helped identify hundreds of victims of the Great Fire of Paris. Techniques and protocols developed during that fire are still in use today.

The term “forensic” is from the Latin, meaning forum or a place where legal matters are discussed. Forensic medicine and dentistry (odontology) deal with the professional handling, examination, interpretation and presentation of medical and dental evidence that come before legal authorities. Although the MiriamWebster dictionary dates the term from 1659, a full text on the subject dates back to 6′h century China. Forensic identification techniques go back even further. In 45 AD, the Roman Emperor Nero used dental impressions to identify slaves; this practice continued throughout Europe and the United States during the slave trade. In 1867, Oscar Amoedo, an Italian dentist, helped identify hundreds of victims of the Great Fire of Paris. Techniques and protocols developed during that fire are still in use today.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

orensic study was originally directed toward identification of the living as well as the dead. To that aim, it is important to note that teeth are extremely durable, able to survive millennia with little or no degradation. Variations in morphology can assist in determining geographic origins. Wear patterns are often indicate a persons oral habits, occupation, and even dietary characteristics. The Presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth was identified with dental records. Dr. Joseph Warren, an American Revolutionary patriot, was identified at Bull Run by means of a sterling silver partial denture fabricated by Paul Revere. Serial killer Ted Bundy, in the absence of any “smoking gun,” was convicted primarily on bitemark evidence left on his victims. Amidst controversy, dental records ultimately identified the remains of Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun.

Anthropometry, the branch of anthropology that uses comparative bony measurements to assist in determining racial origins, was the prevailing discipline used in the study of the skeleton in the late 19th and early 20* centuries. With the advent of xray technology, however, the field of forensic study broadened substantially. Forensic scientists began to use bony anomalies, fractures and prostheses to confirm identification, as well as to contribute information on sex, nationality, and even social standing and occupation.

Soon after Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner introduced blood typing in 1901, he and others employed this new discipline in the field of forensic study. Also in 1901, Sir Richard Henry, newly appointed head of Scotland Yard, forced the adoption of fingerprint identification to replace anthropometry as the prevailing identification technique. Advances in forensic study proceeded continuously, prompting a group of physicians, dentists and scientists in 1950 to form the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS). This organization subsequently began publishing what has become one of the premier journals on the subject, the Journalof’Forensic Science.

Progress in the fields of forensic medicine and dentistry expanded in 1984, when Sir Alec Jeffreys developed the first DNA profiling test. In 1986 he used his test in the successful prosecution of Colin Pitchfork, who was suspected and ultimately convicted of murdering two girls. Interestingly, in the course of the investigation this same test was first used to exonerate an innocent suspect. In 1987, DNA profiling was used successfully in the United States during the trial of a sexual predator in Orlando, Florida. Later that year, similar evidence was challenged in the case of New York vs. Castro. The result of this scrutiny “culminated in a call for certification, accreditation, standardization, and quality control guidelines for both DNA laboratories and the general forensic community.” Today, DNA is becoming the “gold standard” in the area of forensic identification and criminalistics.

THE POSTMORTEM IDENTIFICATION PROCESS: THE STATION NIGHT CLUB FIRE

On February 20, 2003, in The Station fire disaster, 100 people lost their lives, making it the fourth most deadly club fire in the nation’s history and the worst fire in the history of the state. Forensic odontology was a major part of the postmortem identification process.

The forensic process began at the scene, as it usually does. Survivors were extricated and transferred to local and regional hospitals. While victims normally would be extensively photographed on site, this was not practical or appropriate because many bodies, victims as well as injured, were stacked in doorways and near exits. The first priority, therefore, was to locate survivors, some trapped below the dead. Victims were then assigned a numerical identification and transported to the state morgue. Since the physical plant at the Office of the State Medical Examiner (OSME) was not adequate to handle the volume of victims, refrigeration trailers were brought to the state facility.