Application of Ultraviolet Light in Dental Identification of Avalanche Victims

Abstract

In any disaster, it becomes important to identify the deceased for ethical, social and legal causes.Out of the numerous methods of identification, dental comparison is considered to be one of the scientific methods in a Disaster Victim Identification process. The two victims of avalanche in Nepal were identified using dental comparison. The two bodies brought for examination were unidentifiable visually. To aid identification of tooth coloured restorations, ultraviolet light was used. The ultraviolet light made the tooth coloured restorations appear distinct from the adjacent tooth structure in one of the cases. This helped in post-mortem charting of dental examination with greater accuracy. When the ante-mortem dental records and the post-mortem dental findings were compared, positive identification was made for both the cases. The bodies were then handed over to their respective kin. These cases highlighted the importance of ultraviolet light in post-mortem dental examination and the significance of forensic dentistry in identification process.

Maintenance of Dental Records and Forensic Odontology Awareness: A Survey of Croatian Dentists with Implications for Dental Education

“…Its advantages are the ease of utilizing such resources as well as minor technological and financial requirements. Dental identification is especially useful in cases where teeth are the only remaining preserved parts of a human body: fires, mass graves, plane crashes, or natural disasters such as floods and avalanches [5][6][7][8]. However, for dental identification to be successful, dentists must conscientiously keep dental documentation on their patients.…”