[Forensic odontology within the Disaster Victim Identification team of the Dutch Police Force]

The author participated as a forensic odontologist in the Dutch Disaster Victim Identification (DVI-)team during the period 1977-1995. In this article he describes the organization and procedure of this police unit, which is especially trained for the recovery and identification of victims. He also gives an impression of the organization and the special manner of identification of the forensic odontologists within the group of external specialists of the DVI-team. He describes the technical aspects of the identification activities of the forensic odontologists, as well as the identification problems at different sorts of mass disasters. The quality of the records obtained from the victims' dentists greatly influences the final results of dental identification.