With the advent of new technologies being integrated into varied aspects of dental care through visual, photographic, and radiological evidences in clinical diagnostics, these aspects are yet to be involved in forensic sciences. This is despite the availability of the technological advances in today's clinical settings. This review discusses the feasibility of integration of virtual autopsy in forensic odontology practice in an Indian setting. Using high-tech radiological approaches, virtual autopsy provides an efficient and more accurate view on cases such as thanatological investigations, carbonized and putrefied body identifications, mass disaster cases, age estimation, anthropological examinations, and skin lesion analyses. In certain cases, the postmortem photographic and radiological examination becomes essential as the access to the oral cavity is hindered. These become feasible with the advent of availability of antemortem radiological digital formats stored in hospital settings, with the improved collection of data compared to the traditional techniques. However, we do not have any state and national level protocols and laboratories to augment the capabilities further. Virtual autopsy is likely to replace conventional autopsies in the future. Thus the century-old investigation system in our country can be upgraded by the utilization of this Modern Technology. This review advocates a multidisciplinary research and advocacy to develop improved tools and protocols for virtual autopsy and to stress the role of forensic odontologists in an Indian setting.

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Personal identification is an indispensable requirement for forensic and medicolegal investigations, war, crimes, and civil unrest, natural, and mass disasters, postmortem, accident, loss of memory, states of unconsciousness, and being inadvertently misplaced on admission to a hospital. Positive identification through labeled dentures plays a key role in the abovementioned scenario. The importance of denture identification has long been accredited by the dental profession. Various denture identification systems have been reported in the literature. This clinical report describes various methods involved in labeling dentures and suggests unique method of labeling dentures linked with Aadhaar ID card in India.

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Aim: To estimate the age of an individual by pulp/tooth ratio by maxillary lateral incisor using periapical radiographs (RVG). Material and Methodology: The present study consists of randomly selected sample of 120 (60 males and 60 females) individuals [Graph 1], within the age group of 15–54 years grouped as: 15–24 years, 25–34 years, 35–44 years, and 45–54 years. After taking the informed consent from the patients, intraoral periapical radiographs were obtained from the patients. After exposure, the image was saved as a high-resolution JPEG file on a desktop computer and imported to the Adobe Photoshop CS6 image-editing software program for further measurements. Results: The results of the present study show that the pulp/tooth ratio of maxillary lateral incisor decreases as the age increases because of deposition of secondary dentin on the walls of pulp chamber with increase in age resulting in narrowing of the pulp chamber. The results shows that the correlation between age and pulp/tooth ratio was statistically significant (r = 0.807), (r² = 0.652), and (P = 0.000). Conclusion: The maxillary lateral incisors and the application of the new regression formulae on data obtained from radiovisiography lead to accurate age estimation, if at least the selection criteria are respected and good quality radiovisiographs with clear radiological images are used.

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Aim: This study aimed to analyze retrospectively the prevalence, etiology and location, and age and gender distribution of maxillofacial (MF) fractures in the Western part of Maharashtra population. Materials and Methods: Previous records of 1190 patients were evaluated by the observers who had undergone extraoral radiography and occlusal radiography for any diagnostic or treatment purposes between the years 2009 and 2014 were evaluated by the observers. Results: Between the years 2009 and 2014, a total of 2109 MF fractures and associated injuries were collected in 1190 patients and analyzed. Out of the 1190 patients, 697 were male and 493 female. The most commonly affected age group was between 30 and 40 years followed by 20–30 years. The prevalence of road traffic accidents (RTAs) was highest followed by fall, physical assault, sports, and miscellaneous. Conclusion: This study concluded that RTAs were the major cause of fractures. Most fractures occurred in the age group of 31–40 years. Frequency of mandibular fractures was more than midfacial fractures. These findings will be helpful for appropriate health-care policy and management setup in every society.

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Teeth are the strongest part of the human body which can withstand high explosions and are not damaged easily. Thus, teeth are more likely to be the evidence in mass fatal incidents where highly mutilated and dismembered dead bodies are beyond recognition. Each tooth possesses a set of unique characteristics called tooth class characteristics which form the basis of identification. Other features which help in identification are dental pathology, restorations, and dental anomalies. Age, sex, race/ethnicity, occupation, and habits can also be determined from teeth. The present review is an attempt to highlight the racial, occupational, and cultural variations seen in the teeth and their role as in forensic identification of victim/suspects.

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Bite mark evidence has been introduced in trials all over the country. Bite mark evidence, an aspect of forensic odontology, is the process by which odontologist's (dentists) attempt to match marks found at crime scenes with the dental impressions of suspects. If a victim is bitten by a perpetrator during a crime and police have a suspect, odontologists can attempt to “match” the bite mark to the suspect's teeth. There have been a lot of controversies in the identification of bite mark analysis in the past 15 years and acceptance by the law. While this review aims to explain the increasing number of wrongful convictions that is associated and related to the past with bite mark analyses and this has resulted in intense scientific and legal scrutiny. This article contains the current status and position of bite mark analysis. It explains about the highlights and drawback of bite mark identification and law's evaluating and responding to unreliable and unscientific evidence.

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Background: One of the most challenging tasks for forensic dentists and anthropologists has been identification and determination of sex of unknown human skeletal remains. Aim: To determine sexual dimorphism by CBCT (3-D) analysis of mental foramen among the south Indian population. Materials and Methods: Total of 116 CBCT images of subjects were analysed. Distance from the superior border of mental foramen to lower border of mandible (SLM) and the inferior border of mental foramen to lower border of mandible (ILM) were calculated by three examiners and recorded. Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics, paired t-test and independent sample t-test were used for statistical comparisons. Results: The mean distance of right SLM among male and female subjects were 17.07±1.64 and 14.92 ± 1.33 respectively. Similarly of the left side of male and female subjects were 13.30 ±1.52 and 11.73± 1. The mean distance of left ILM among male and female subjects were 13.44± 1.68 and 11.79 ± 1.21 respectively and on the left side of male and female subjects were 1.3 ± 1.52 and 11.73 ± 1.27. There was a statistically significant difference between sex and sides in terms of SLM and ILM (P = 0.0001). Conclusion: Distances from mental foramen to the lower border of mandible demonstrates sexual dimorphism.

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Introduction: Dental morphology is a highly heritable characteristic, also stable with time and has a fairly high state of preservation. Nonmetric dental traits have a crucial role in ethnic classifications of a population which helps in forensic racial identification purposes. Aims and Objectives: The objective of the study is to determine the frequency and variability of possible nonmetric tooth traits using extracted permanent anterior teeth from Kerala population for discerning racial ethnicity. Materials and Methods: This qualitative, cross-sectional study was carried out using 1761 extracted intact permanent anterior teeth collected from different dental clinics situated all over Kerala. Results: The most common trait noted was shoveling in both incisors and canines with maximum expression in 11 (69.12%) followed by 21 (62.94%). Double shoveling and lingual tubercle prevalence in canines (12.64% and 10.18%) were more than incisors (6.09% and 7.55%). In canines, the expression percentage of palatal fossae, lingual fossae, and distal accessory ridge was 31.13, 18.49, and 10.56, respectively. Conclusion: The results showed a higher degree of shoveling trait in this population. This research suggested new elements of invaluable ethnographic tooth traits value to understand racial ethnicity of Kerala population.

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Female infanticide is a widespread social problem in India. Majority of the cases of infanticide goes unreported, as there is a lack of proper evidence. It is very essential to distinguish live birth from stillbirth, to prove a case of infanticide. However, by the time, the mortal remains of the child are available for forensic examination, the body is decayed and putrefied; hence, soft-tissue evidence is lost. Although the chronological age of the child can be estimated by skeletal parameters, they cannot differentiate live birth and stillbirth. Thus, in such cases, the neonatal line is a valuable tool to prove female infanticide.

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