Antemortem records of forensic significance among edentulous individuals

The identification of edentulous individuals is problematic due to poor provision of labelled dental prostheses. Dental records may still provide useful information for odontologists in the comparative identification process. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of forensically significant information contained within the dental records of a population of denture wearers attending the University of Manchester School of Dentistry. Two hundred and two dental records were examined and a proforma completed. The mean age of the patients was 72 years. Medical history were absent in 4% of all records and only 67.8% of the written records were rated as good. Thirty-two percent of the records contained one or more panoramic radiographs but 30% of these were over 3 years old rendering their usefulness in identification procedures questionable. In total only 18% of the examined records contained antemortem information that would enable identification. These data suggest that the process of denture marking is an essential in order to ensure that the identification of this population can be undertaken expediently by dental means.     

Denture marking--patient preference of various methods

Dental forensic organizations world wide have recommended that dental prostheses should be labeled with at least the patient's (wearer's) name and preferably with further unique identifiers such as social security number. A range of methods are available and the purpose of this study was to determine, via the means of a visual questionnaire, which are the most preferable to those patients who wear complete dentures. One hundred edentulous patients attending the Manchester Dental Hospital were shown a range of denture labeling methods and asked to rank these according to their preference. The most preferred method was that of an embedded radio frequency identification microchip (38% rated this as first) and the second was an inclusion technique using onion paper (24% rated this as first). The least preferred method was the use of a groove cut into the denture flange with 71% of patients rating this as the poorest in terms of esthetics. The study demonstrates that the method of denture labeling is important to patients and to ensure that denture labeling is performed routinely esthetic preferences must be considered.