AI-Driven Innovations in Forensic Odontology: Challenges and Opportunities

Forensic odontology serves as a pivotal domain in the forensic sciences, contributing significantly to personal identification in criminal investigations, disaster victim identification, and age estimation scenarios. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), the landscape of forensic odontology is rapidly evolving, offering more precise, automated, and efficient analysis tools. This paper critically evaluates the recent AI-driven developments in forensic odontology, including machine learning algorithms for dental identification, pattern recognition in bite mark analysis, and age estimation using radiographic imaging. Furthermore, it addresses the current challenges, including data scarcity, ethical considerations, legal acceptability, and technical limitations. Finally, the article proposes future directions for integrating AI more robustly and ethically within forensic odontology.