Picture adapted from www.uthealthleader.org |
Forensic odontologists
play a vital role in identification of victims with bite marks. As we all know, tooth is the
hardest structure found in human beings. During violent assaults such as sexual
assault, rape, physical abuse, and murder, teeth can be used as an effective
weapon. Victims often use their teeth as a self-defensive weapon to inflict
injury on assailants. On the other hand, assailants are commonly known to
attack the victims by biting them intentionally due to their enraged manner, especially in the case of child abuse.
Distinct bite marks has the potential to link the assailant and the victim.
Analysis, Comparison & Identification
Picture adapted from www.nlm.nih.gov |
In bite
mark analysis, bite marks with unique traits are used to compare with the
suspect’s teeth imprint pattern tracings. Note that the bite marks must first
be established as a human bite mark by identifying specific types of teeth via
their class characteristics.
Presence of some characteristics in the injury
such as rotations, malocclusions, fractures, restorations, congenital
malformations and etc could facilitate the forensic dentist to analyse the bite
marks. However, the overall significance of bite marks can be decreased when
these features are absent in the injury.
Forensic dentist must understand tooth
morphology, dental arch characteristics, occlusions and etc thoroughly in order
to carry out bite mark analysis accurately.
How are evidences collected from bite victim?
Picture adapted from www.utforensic.org |
Dental
forensic examiner, despite recording the documentation of physical appearance,
size, orientation and location of bite marks, must take close-up photographs
using intra-oral camera with a reference scale to allow following measurements.
Albeit both colour and black-and-white film photography remain as the standard,
digital photography are well-accepted. Subcutaneous evidence of bite mark
damage can be identified by using infrared photography.
Saliva
swabs (if applicable) should be collected from the bitten surface on the victim
along with a DNA sample. These will later be analysed and amplified (eg: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) analysis) to make comparison
between the samples and bite marks, resulting in identifying association
between the biter and the injury.
A precise
impression of the bitten surface should be taken in order to inspect the
presence of any irregularities caused by the teeth.
How are evidences collected from bite suspect?
It is
necessary to perform a clinical examination on the suspect, including
extra-oral and intra-oral examinations. Extensive photographs, impressions as
well as bite sample should be collected for subsequent analysis. These
procedure s could only be done after obtaining a court-ordered search warrant.
Summary
Forensic
dentistry field is still working until today to increase the scientific
validity for human bite marks to provide adequate evidence for jurisprudence
purpose.
PCR analysis can also be done in salivary swab specimen.
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