| Seq #172 | Friday, 11 March 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:45 AM-12:45 PM Baltimore Convention Center 339, Symposium - Group/Division Sponsored | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current Concepts in Diagnostic Forensic Odontology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sponsored by: Diagnostic Systems, Oral Medicine & Pathology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: Organizer: Description: Disaster victim identification (DVI) is an intensive and demanding task involving experts from various disciplines. DVI interventions can only be brought to a successful conclusion if properly planned, involving well-trained key experts and selecting the appropriate forensic diagnostic tools. Interpol’s DVI procedures are outlined in this respect. As one of the key members of the identification team, the forensic odontologist takes an active part in all phases of the identification process. Modern disaster scenarios may include more destruction, fragmentation, and mingling of the human bodies than previously witnessed. This means that identification of the victims of such events has become much more difficult. Forensic odontologists are responding to these new challenges with approaches to identification that embrace modern scientific methods. As teeth and dental structures may survive post mortem, personal identification by means of dental data is one of the most reliable methods of human identification. Nevertheless, some disasters including massive fires may destroy most of the dentition, leaving little dental data for comparison to ante mortem dental records. Therefore, other diagnostic approaches have been developed. Traces of saliva and fragments of teeth and bone may be a valuable source of DNA evidence, offering new probes to solve unanswered questions and elucidate unusual cases. Craniofacial reconstruction is another tool, offering important potential for victim identification. Conventional techniques for craniofacial reconstruction are usually based on manual modeling and standard soft-tissue depth tables. More recent developments in computer-aided 3-D imaging and ultrasound applications for soft tissue depth registrations may offer new diagnostic tools for craniofacial reconstruction. The symposium will close with discussing the state-of-the-art and identifying the challenges facing forensic diagnostic research | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairperson: R. JACOBS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Back to the: Symposium Program
Back to the IADR/AADR/CADR 83rd General Session (March 9-12, 2005)