Dental record identification

[Molinaro]

I was wondering about the way using dental records to id a body is seen on tv all the time. Just how realistic is it?

I don't imagine that there is any central database for dental records. So is it actualy only used to id about when you suspect you know who it is? That is to say, it's for confirmation of identity.

Otherwise, how would you go about figuring out what dentist to check. And how do you do the actual search of the records? Are they not simply paper files for many past records?

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

As far as I know, there's no central database. Police can start by looking at the missing persons, then branching out into dentist offices in the area the body was found. The pattern of fillings will be unique to each person, if they lack fillings their teeth can still be matched by pattern. For example, my teeth have some fillings, but also have several twisted teeth and a leftover baby tooth.

Dentists keep the x-rays on file, I expect they'll be trying to digitize them soon as paper files take up entire walls.

 

[MRC_Hans]

In Denmark, I think there has been cases where dental data have been sent to all dentists in the attempt to ID an unknown, but we are only 5.5 million people (and a correspondingly low number of dentists. In general, however, it can only be used to confirm identity, or sort out the remains of several people (like after plane crashes).

Dental ID has been made partly obsolescent by DNA analysis, but it has the advantage of being useful in cases where DNA is destroyed e.g. by heat.

Hans

 

[casebro]

My HMO uses digital x-rays. They use a similar 'plate', it looks like the film holder they used to use. But somehow, the plate is digital, like a scanner maybe? Then they 'read' the plate into desk top that uses a screen like a tv wide monitor on end. Thereafter, it is transmitted and stored digitally. The radiologist could be whoring in Vegas while diagnosing my neck.

I suspect the 'plate' is a gazillion pixels. Or maybe it works like a laser printer that ionizes the paper so powdered ink sticks, only something is used that the x-rays ionize, then the ionization is scanned, using something like a flat bed scanner? No connections on the plate that I saw, normal looking x-ray machine, takes a few seconds to scan the plate.

Next thing will be a system to codify dental x-rays, like they use for fingerprints. Then a web search of all the on-line dental offices. Google it, looking for 10-point matchs.

Hmm, your digital ID will include fingerprints, dental x-rays, iris patterns, and a genetic readout.

Pretty soon, I won't be able to get away with nothing.

 

[Big Les]

William Bass's great book "Death's Acre" about forensic pathology and the "Body Farm" contains several case studies where dental records were useful. The book's not online but you might be able to turn something up based upon just his name. Reading it, it was apparent that it's not always possible to locate the records, especially if you're talking about a poor person in which case they may never have been generated. As already covered, you have to go to individual dentists practices' near where the person is believed to have lived.

You thinking of topping somebody, OP?

 

[Molinaro]

No. I was just wondering if the matter of fact way it's portrayed in movies had any basis in reality. I couldn't imagine how it could be anything but a very difficult, time consuming effort that wouldn't likely be successfull.

 

[Kestrel]

No. I was just wondering if the matter of fact way it's portrayed in movies had any basis in reality. I couldn't imagine how it could be anything but a very difficult, time consuming effort that wouldn't likely be successfull.

Here is one way it could be done.

Dentists have a standard method of numbering teeth. If you collect dental records for missing persons, basic facts such as what teeth have fillings or crowns can be entered in the missing persons database. When a body is found, a quick database search will pull out only those missing persons with similar dental records. The final determination will require a detailed comparison, but that's not hard when there are only a few candidates.

 

[Big Les]

No. I was just wondering if the matter of fact way it's portrayed in movies had any basis in reality. I couldn't imagine how it could be anything but a very difficult, time consuming effort that wouldn't likely be successfull.

I was only joshing. I checked out the book I mentioned earlier, and there's less info than I remember about quite how they go about it. The only case studies that give details of how records were tracked down all involve confirming an already suspected victim ID - that's clearly more straightforward. In one case the suspected victim's spouse gives advice on where to look for dental records to confirm the ID.

In cases where you have no candidates for a victim, I imagine there's a lot of luck and hard work involved in checking dentists' in the area local to the body find.

Some snippets;

Normally, when a skull comes in with a full set of teeth, there’s a reasonably good chance of making a positive identification...Of course, to do that, you’ve got to lay your hands on the dental X rays of missing persons who match the age range, sex, and race of your corpse. That isn’t always possible, but you’d be surprised how often a dentist is able to provide the records needed to cinch an identification.

Bass hints later on again that it's possible;

somewhere out there—from the period before her life started going wrong—there were dental X rays with her name on them. I knew we could find them, but it might take a while. Fortunately, we were spared the trouble.

<because fingerprints and missing persons records did the job>

But again, no details of how you'd go about it with a totally unknown body, beyond trawling local surgeries.

I suspect that as usual, the TV is lying to you, but perhaps not by too much in this case!

 

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

Well, no identification technique is going to be entirely foolproof, as you generally need some starting point for identification. Fingerprint databases can work, but the person has to have had their fingerprints registered somewhere at some point. Likewise with DNA, if there's no existing record, you have no starting point, even if you have a good sample from the corpse.


I think a lot of the time these identification methods are used to exclude missing persons. You know, John Smith has been reported missing, we've found a corpse, we know what John Smith's DNA is because we have a known sample from his family, we test the corpse's DNA, it doesn't match, so John Smith is still missing and we have an unidentified body now as well.