Maya Awada
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London
Title: Dentists in the forensic field
Biography
Biography: Maya Awada
Abstract
Forensic odontology or forensic dentistry is the implementation of dental evidence in the legal and criminal field. It involves the application of dental knowledge mainly in the scope of human identification both in ordinary cases of individual identification and in disaster victim identification (DVI), examination of patterned injuries caused by teeth that are frequent in sexual crimes and child abuse cases and age assessment all in the interest of justice. The uniqueness of an individual dentition its resistance to temperature and time are the major reasons behind odontology being a key factor in solving forensic cases. The presentation will offer an overview of forensic odontology, the process of identification using dental records and dental imaging, the importance of this method in mass disasters such as Thailand tsunami, and the concept of bite mark analysis.
Key words: forensic dentistry, identification, victim, bite mark analysis, disaster victim identification.