Citation

Afsin H, Buyuk Y, Sadi Cagdir A. J. Forensic Odontostomatol. 2013; 31(Suppl 1): 133.

Affiliation

Council of Forensic Medicine, Yenibosna, Istanbul. Turkey.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Meditor)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

24362203

Abstract

Unique personal features of jaws and teeth are analysed by forensic dentistry to provide help in identification practices. As an effective evidence, bite marks are important as much as blood stains, fingerprints and semen samples in the cases of unidentified sexual assaults and unidentified murders. Bite mark evidences have been widely used in the analysis of criminal cases for many years. In Turkey, first practices of bite mark analysis date back to 1993, and all bite mark evidences which are sent by prosecution offices are analysed by the Council of Forensic Medicine's (ATK) Morgue Specialization and Forensic Dentistry Departments. In the years between 2003-2013, 24 number of bite mark evidences were analysed, and 15 of these analyses resulted in positive identifications while the others failed because of a number of different reasons. The number of dentists is insufficient in Turkey. There is a need of legal reforms on this issue. ADOK association has conducted and plans further studies to make Forensic Dentistry more popular for the dentists in Turkey. Increasing the number of forensic dentists will provide help in crime scene investigations and further analyses. Plenty of factors affect to the results of bite mark analysis. Especially, imperfect photographing of bite marks cause great difficulties in the criminal analyses. Even tough, in some cases, deficient photographs are handled by some practical solutions, precautions have to be taken in order to prevent these kind of faulty photographings. Training dentists on forensic cases would make bite mark analyses and Forensic Dentistry applications more efficient, popular and effective.

Language: en