Post-mortem dental radiography: a useful innovation

Post-mortem Intra-oral radiographs can reveal the entire status of the crowns of teeth when visual access is limited or impossible and afford a reliable means of achieving identification by a comparison with antemortem clinical records. Difficulties are often encountered in placing and retaining intra-oral films in the mouths of deceased persons whose mandibular musculature has been fixed in rigor mortis or by the effects of incineration. These difficulties may be minimised by the use of balloon catheters which can be inflated within the oral cavity and serve to support the film in place during radiographic exposure.