Evaluation of adult dental patterns on orthopantomograms and its implication for personal identification: A retrospective observational study

BACKGROUND: Establishing a person's identity is a very complex process and is one of the main objectives of the forensic science also. Dental radiographs are certainly one of the most desirable pieces of antemortem evidence because of their highly objective nature as compared with other records. The aim of the present study is to establish the utility of orthopantomography for human identification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 300 digital orthomopantographs were randomly selected from those stored at Oral Medicine and Radiology Department of Dr. D.Y. Patil Dental College and Hospital, Pimpri, Pune. Dental patterns were classified into nine types which are commonly observed in dental radiography. The diversity of dental patterns was calculated for full dentition, maxilla and mandible respectively. RESULTS: Diversity of dental patterns observed for full dentition, maxilla and mandible were found to be 99.9%, 98.2% and 98.4% respectively. CONCLUSION: Findings suggests that orthopantomograms prove to be valuable aid in human identification.