Role of forensic odontology in the identification of victims of major mass disasters across the world: A systematic review

Ghevaram Prajapati; Sachin C Sarode; Gargi S Sarode; Pankaj Shelke; Kamran H Awan; Shankargouda Patil

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0199791

Role of forensic odontology in the identification of victims of major mass disasters across the world: A systematic review

PLoS One. 2018 Jun 28;13(6):e0199791. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199791. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Ghevaram Prajapati¹, Sachin C Sarode¹, Gargi S Sarode¹, Pankaj Shelke¹, Kamran H Awan², Shankargouda Patil³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Dr. D.Y. Patil Dental College and Hospital, Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune, India.
² College of Dental Medicine, Roseman University of Health Sciences, South Jordan, Utah, United States of America.
³ Department of Maxillofacial Surgery and Diagnostic Sciences, Division of Oral Pathology, College of Dentistry, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Background: Forensic odontology (FO) is regarded in the literature as one of the most reliable and economical scientific methods for victim identification in mass disasters (MDs). The present paper systematically reviews the role of forensic odontologists in various global MDs.

Method: A comprehensive search of the literature databases (PubMed, Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google Scholar), along with cross-referencing published peer-reviewed articles, was conducted. The search included full texts, abstracts or titles, had no inclusion year limit (searched until September 2017) and was limited to the English language. Keywords included a combination of 'Forensic odontology', 'Dental records', 'Victim identification', 'Natural mass disaster', 'Criminal mass disaster', 'Accidental mass disaster' and 'Victim disaster'.

Results: Of the included disasters (20), 12 (57.14%) were accidental, 5 (23.80%) natural and 3 (19.04%) were criminal. The maximum number of victims was associated with the Japan tsunami (15892), followed by the Thailand tsunami (4280) and the Estonia ferry disaster (852). A total of 23654 victims were reported, of which 20569 (86.96%) were positively identified. Reports from 17 MDs included the use of FO in victim identification [3025 (14.70%) cases]. In addition, 1094 victims (5.31%; from 7 papers) were identified using FO in combination with other methodologies. The highest percentage of victims was identified using FO following the Kentucky air crash (47; 100%), followed by the Newark air crash (38; 76%), the Nepal air crash (10; 71.42%), the France air crash (56; 65.88%), the Australian bushfire (14; 63.63%), and the Estonia ferry disaster (57; 60.63%).

Conclusion: FO has played a significant role in victim identification in several MDs around the world. The success of FO-based identification is heavily dependent on the availability of ante-mortem records from general dental practitioners. Hence, adequate knowledge about FO and appropriate dental record keeping among general dental practitioners are critical.

Publication types

Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Databases, Bibliographic
Disaster Victims*
Forensic Anthropology* / methods
Forensic Anthropology* / standards
Forensic Anthropology* / trends
Forensic Dentistry* / methods
Forensic Dentistry* / standards
Forensic Dentistry* / trends
Humans

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.