Citation

Tan SL, Peng SY, Wan L, Chen JM, Xia WT. Med. Sci. Law 2018; 58(1): 58-61.

Affiliation

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, British Academy of Forensic Sciences, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0025802417750807

PMID

29363384

Abstract

Dental injuries, especially of the incisors, caused by punches in violent criminal attacks could be seen in daily forensic casework involving the identification of injuries to a living body. Sometimes, when there is neither circumstantial evidence nor information about the surrounding circumstances, it is difficult to discern the cause of these injuries and the manner in which they were inflicted. As an example of clinical forensic medicine, we present the case of a 58-year-old woman whose teeth were injured when fighting with her son-in-law over household affairs with no witnesses present. The two parties had conflicting stories about the cause of the woman's injury. The woman claimed that her teeth were lost while she was being beaten by her son-in-law, and the man argued that the damage to his mother-in-law's teeth was self-inflicted when she bit his fingers. The police attending the crime called for a forensic examination. Forensic practitioners analysed the mechanism of the tooth loss using multi-slice spiral computed tomography (MSCT) and imaging reconstruction technology. Local alveolar bone (medial alveolar) fracture and a small area of alveolar bone loss were found on MSCT. Thus, forensic medical experts speculated that the woman's lower central and lateral incisors were lost as a result of a violent attack and were not self-inflicted. Finally, forensic practitioners helped police in avoiding a miscarriage of justice and wrongful conviction.

Language: en

Keywords

Clinical forensic medicine; MSCT; criminalistics; human rights; traumatic dental injuries