Question 5 (Part 1): The Evidence Presented

Question 5:

List the evidences that have been presented to both the doctors.

Picture 1: Adult's skull & jaw

Let’s look at the mandible. It bears five teeth, including three molars on the right and two molars (second and third molars) on the left. Eleven tooth sockets with missing teeth can also be clearly seen. We can thus deduce that this mandible belongs to an adult above the age of 17 due to the presence of third molars. However, we cannot predict the gender of the victim by looking at the mandible alone.

The skull here portrays rounded supraorbital ridge. It could belong to a male. Fragment of bone consisting tooth sockets is present. Further investigations need to be performed to gather more information before we jump into conclusion.

Picture 2: Pieces of a jaw

This piece of evidence shows the anterior view of a mandible bearing three molars on the right side. The other feature which we can appreciate is the angle of mandible is more acute. Besides, it displays a prominent gonial eversion of mandible. We may presume that the victim is probably a male adult.

Picture here shows the posterior view of the same piece of mandible. 

Closer look at the lower right molars! Note the presence of caries on the lower first permanent molar, as well as fissure sealant on the third molar. These bits and pieces of information are useful enough for us to look up the dental records of missing persons and see if we are lucky enough to get a match! 

Picture 3: Child's jaw

How can we tell that this mandible belongs to a child? As you can see, the mandible is smaller than that of adult. The child dentitions are incomplete because not all the teeth had fully erupted. The remarkable anterior tooth shown here could be a canine. As lower deciduous canine erupts between 17-23 months, the child should be approximately 2 years old.