Dental Investigation in Mass Disasters

¹ Royal Dental College, Copenhagen, Denmark

In cases of major accidents involving many victims, the necessity of a rapid identification becomes urgent. Identification means establishing by comparison that individual characteristics in a given unknown body are the same as those known to have existed in a given missing person. Dental characteristics are highly individual and resistant. They have also been recorded in a large number of persons throughout the Western world. Therefore dental investigation of accident victims provides excellent chances of contributing materially to their identification. The efforts of the dental expert mainly concern the oral autopsy of the unknown bodies. A number of problems in connection with the examining and recording of dental evidence were discussed extensively. The value of an X-ray examination was stressed in particular. The difficulties in producing adequate descriptions of missing persons are numerous. The necessity of procuring and forwarding to the experts original dental records was strongly emphasized. The unfortunate consequences of failure on this point were illustrated. The final comparison may lead to direct identification based on characteristics of both the unknown body and the missing person. Other victims may be identified indirectly by elimination. Remaining cases have to be referred to a more thorough scientific examination and evaluation.