A comparative study of two methods of dental pulp extraction for genetic fingerprinting

Extracting dental DNA for identification purposes is usually performed after crushing the tooth. The main disadvantage of this method is that the tooth is completely destroyed so further radiographic, anatomical or biochemical studies are no longer possible. We compared the quantities of DNA obtained by crushing the tooth and by removing pulp by standard endodontic access with trepanation of the occlusal surface and amplified DNA micro-satellites. In the series of crushed teeth, insufficient material for amplification was obtained in 78% of cases and a complete profile was obtained in only 9% of cases. Conversely, for the teeth prepared by trepanation, the profile was complete in 75% of cases and the DNA quantity was insufficient in only 3% of cases. Trepanation thus produced superior results in terms of quantity of DNA and the quality of the genetic profiles. Furthermore, it was a conservative procedure that allowed further analyses on the tooth.