Introduction:
Defined by Keiser-Neilsen in 1970 [1] [2] forensic odontology, or forensic dentistry, is a branch of forensic medicine which in the interest of justice deals with the proper handling and examination of dental evidence and with the proper evaluation and presentation of the dental findings.
Teeth are the most durable organs of vertebrates and mankind’s history of evolution depends hugely on remnants of dental evidence found on fossils. Teeth can persist long after other skeletal structures have succumbed to organic decay or destruction by some other agencies, such as fire [3] [4].
Rugoscopy (study of palatal rugae patterns), cheiloscopy (study of lip prints), tooth prints, radiographs, photographic study and molecular methods like Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are various methods used in the study of forensic odontology. …show more content…
The discovery of the double-helix structure of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), in 1953, which is responsible for the genetic inheritance in human beings, caused a major impact and led to remarkable changes in nearly all fields of science. This knowledge has been the basis for development of techniques that allow characterizing each person’s individuality based on the DNA sequence. [5]
PCR, originally introduced by Saiki et al. [6] and improved upon by Mullis and Faloona serves as a powerful tool in forensic odontology for in vitro amplification of specific sequence even from negligible quantities of DNA or Ribonucleic acid (RNA).
Schwartz .et al.1991 and Gajendra Veerarahgavan 2010 [7] [8]
Studied the effect of different environmental conditions like varying pH, humidity, temperature, storage etc. and concluded that these factors did not affect the ability to obtain high molecular weight (HMW) DNA from dental