Are Tooth Prints a Hard Tissue Equivalence of Finger Print in Mass Disaster: A Rationalized Review

Personal identification methods may not be efficient when bodies are decomposed, burned, in cases of mass disasters when soft tissue cannot provide reliable information or has been lost. Various methods currently employed in forensic odontology for personal identification include comparing with antemortem dental charts, rugoscopy, denture labeling, DNA analysis from dental pulp, bite mark analysis, etc., Recently, there is growing interest in the study of enamel rod end patterns. These enamel rod end patterns are termed as “Tooth prints” and the study of these prints is known as “Ameloglyphics” (amelo: Enamel, Glyphics: Carvings). This review encompasses about the basis of using enamel rod end patterns, methods of obtaining the patterns and further suggests these tooth prints as an analogy to finger print in personal identification in mass disasters.