Root Canal Treated Teeth as an Aid to Forensic Identification

In a typical forensic setting, the goal of the forensic odontologist is to identify an unknown deceased individual by comparison of their dental features with the dental records of a person thought to be missing following a police investigation. Written dental records are not the preferred basis of comparison as they are not derived directly from a person. They are merely an interpretive, subjective record of an event or an observation, which may not be contemporaneous and may have been written in part by a third party. They are prone to errors, inaccuracies and misinterpretation. This quality makes written records unreliable as the sole basis of comparison in dental identification. Furthermore, a statistical basis for identification by comparison of dental features has not been developed.1 Images however, are an objective method of recording information; they do not mislead and do not record subjective impressions. In addition, they capture a wealth of specific morphological data that is far richer and more specific than information recorded in a written dental record, making them an excellent basis for a comparison. Radiographs are an excellent example of images that capture the unique morphological features of the teeth, their surrounding structures, and any dental restorations that may be present.. Due to their relative rarity and their unique expression of individual morphological features, root canal treatments are a very fruitful source of features that can be used to differentiate between dentitions and, by extension, demonstrate similarity to a high degree for identification by image comparison. Furthermore, root canal procedures are commonly X-rayed at the conclusion o