1088th General Monthly Meeting
Forensic Dentistry
Dr W. O'Reilly
Date: Wednesday 3rd May, 2000
Time: 6:00 for 6:30 pm
Venue:
Report on the Meeting by Dr Edmund Potter
How many times have we read in the paper that "the victim was identified from dental records", and then wondered who has such skills"? Well, the current President of the New South Wales Branch of the Australian Dental Association, Dr Bill O'Reilly, is one such oral sleuth, and he visually illustrated his work to the Society and guests at the University of Technology, Sydney, on 3rd May 2000.
Being forewarned by the speaker, very few of the spellbound audience (I nearly wrote "open-mouthed") audibly flinched as slide after slide of post mortem jaws confronted their gaze.
Of all methods to identify dead people, dental observation is the cheapest. However, there are drawbacks to using facial features, tattoos, and operation scars, because soft tissues often suffer in road or industrial accidents or with death by fire or drowning. In any case these tissues soon decay to oblivion at ordinary temperature, whereas teeth decay only in vivo. Stoic members of the audience observed that superglue reunites body parts vital to identification.
The speaker recounted the case of 3 girls who died in a fire tragedy at Young (NSW). Their teeth had no fillings, but their X-ray orthodontic records before death were fine and identifications were achieved. Although dental records can sometimes be of disappointing quality, this fault does not apply to members of the armed forces where regular dental checks are thorough. Successful identification after 50 years have occurred at wartime aircraft crash sites in New Guinea, and also after high-speed air accidents in more modern times.
The immediate past President, Associate Professor Tony Baker chaired the lecture (all in slide-showing darkness), but with lights restored he was obliged to discourage an enlivened audience from being too loquacious during keen discussion. However, the audience were gladdened by the news that the absence of teeth need not frustrate identification, especially if their dentures had been marked with their names.
(We extend our thanks to Dr Edmund Potter for the provision of this report - Ed)