Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology
Published on: August 22, 2022
[Indexes of forensic identification by the digital orthopantomogram of the normal teeth]
Dong Gao1, Qing-Hong Wang, Jia-Qing Ye
1Department of Forensic Pathology, West China School of Preclinical and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. landlord3799@sina.com.cn
Objective:
To explore more concise and unified forensic identification indexes for people with none dental disease in digital orthopantomogram.
Methods:
To select randomly 170 digital orthopantomogram with none dental disease. Then to select indexes for full dentition patterns and dental alignment patterns according to the dental physiological variations and the characters of dental alignment respectively. Finally diversity of the indexes would be evaluated by statistical analysis.
Results:
The group with none dental disease had 74 kinds of full dentition pattern in 170 samples, thus its diversity was 43.53%. The group had 129 kinds of dental alignment pattern, thus its diversity was 75.88%. The group had 150 kinds of full dentition/dental alignment pattern, thus its diversity was 88.24%.
Conclusion:
The diversity of the full dentition pattern was not very good. So the full dentition coding was not very effective when it was used solely. The diversity of dental alignment pattern was good. So the method of dental alignment coding could be used in the maxillofacial forensic identification. If the group was coded by the full dentition and dental alignment pattern at the same time, its diversity was better than any single pattern. So the method would be valuable in forensic identification.
Related Concept Videos
Tooth Anatomy
The Crown, Neck, and Root
The visible part of the tooth is referred to as the crown. It's covered by enamel, the hardest substance in the human body. The crown is uniquely shaped for each type of tooth, allowing for different functions such as cutting, tearing, or grinding food.
Teeth
In the bud stage, the tooth germ (an aggregation of cells) starts to form in the developing jawbone. During the cap stage, the tooth germ differentiates into enamel organ, dental papilla, and dental sac, which will later develop into the tooth's enamel, dentin and...

