A preliminary study of dental patterns in panoramic radiography for forensic identification

Fingerprints, DNA, and dentition are the principal markers used for forensic identification. Frequently used dental characteristics for identification include evidence of dental procedures, such as restorations, root canal therapy, crowns, and extractions. The purposes of this preliminary study were to define dental parameters in panoramic radiographs to generate dental patterns for forensic identification, to evaluate intra- and inter-observer effects on the assessment of these parameters, and to determine the optimum number of parameters to be used in dental coding for diversity studies. In total, 11 dental parameters (virgin, missing, filling, crown, defect, residual root, bridge pontic, dental implant, endodontic treatment, impacted, and dental anomaly) were defined and the details of the coding were shown. Based on the definition of the specified parameters, dental patterns were determined from 169 panoramic radiographs. Overall, intra- and inter-observer agreements were 97.48% and 94.48%, respectively. The effects of each parameter on diversity were evaluated. When 4 and 6 base parameters and all 11 parameters were used, the diversities for full dentition were 99.31%, 99.95%, and 99.95% respectively. It was concluded that from panoramic radiographs with the 11 specified parameters, an optimum number of 6 parameters (virgin, missing, filling, crown, defect, and impacted) can be used readily and reliably to study the diversity of dental patterns for forensic identification.