The History of Forensic Dentistry

Forensic dentistry or odontology is the identification of a criminal or a deceased person by their teeth or teethmarks. Stories of establishing the identity of a corpse when little remains of the body date back as early as the first century AD. Today, forensic odontology is typically used in cases of John or Jane Does (unidentified corpses), mass death where remains are mixed together, or in cases where the human remains are decomposed or unidentifiable due to severe injury. Forensic odontology is also used to identify criminals by their teethmarks, usually in attack victims.

Early Forensic Odontology

• The first essay on the subject of forensic odontology was written in 1898 by Cuban-born Dr. Oscar Amoedo in Paris. Entitled "Dental Arts and Legal Medicine," the book provided the first images and text relating to the identification of unknown bodies, making Amoedo the founder of modern forensic dentistry.

First Forensic Odontology Identification

• The first human remains successfully identified by means of forensic odontology were 126 Parisians killed when the Bazar de la Charité burned down on May 4, 1897. The theater attendees were killed when flammable ether-oxygen film ignited inside a projector, resulting in an extremely rapid and devastating fire. All but 30 of the victims were successfully identified by their clothing or jewelery. One of the unidentified victims, Duchesse d'Alencon, the daughter of the Duke of Bavaria, was later identified by Albert Haus using early, detailed dental records taken by Dr. Isaac B. Davenport.

First Identification Committees

• Norway established the first forensic odontology identification committees in 1945 to investigate crime scenes with multiple victims. Each committee consisted of a police officer, a dentist and a doctor working together to identify the deceased. A victim could only be formally identified if all three members were in agreement. In cases where bodies could not be identified, dental impressions were to be taken from the victim. These early Norwegian identification committees provided principles which underpin disaster victim identification to this day.

First North American Conviction

• The first criminal conviction in North America to feature evidence in the form of forensic odontology was that of Wayne Boden in 1972. Sentenced to three life sentences for the murder of four Canadian women, Boden's trial featured evidence from orthodontist Gordon Swann who was able to link bite marks on the victims to Boden's teeth. Swann was in contact with J. Edgar Hoover prior to the trial and was directed to England to meet with experts on forensic odontology.

Age Identification

• Forensic odontology can also be used for determining the age of a deceased person. In 1991, Dr. Mark Skinner and Professor Gail Anderson of Simon Fraser University, Canada, reported the case of a Native-American child whose cranium was discovered in British Columbia, Canada. The child's age was determined through examination of the tooth enamel as well as stress markers in the teeth which were correlated to incidents of stress in the child's life.