Identificação humana através dos métodos odontolegais: uma revisão de literatura

Abstract

Human identification is related to the set of procedures for individualization of a person, and is of utmost importance in forensic medicine and dentistry, for legal and humanitarian reasons. Through post-mortem human identification, people can guarantee and preserve their rights. This identification through the dental arch is necessary especially in cases of charred, skeletonized, or putrefied bodies. In these cases the forensic dentist will apply his knowledge and techniques to identify relevant characteristics about that individual, such as age, gender, ethnicity, etc., and will compare the data collected ante-mortem and post-mortem to reach a conclusion. Thus, the objective of this paper is to analyze the main techniques used by legal dentistry in human identification through the dental arch and the role of the forensic dentist in this area. For the research were selected papers corresponding to the theme,published in the Pubmed, Lilacs, Google academic and Scielo databases between theyears 2011 and 2022, in English and Portuguese. The absence of dental records or ofrelevant information in the documents was pointed out as the main cause for the failureof human identification through dental arches, because it makes it impossible to perform comparative examinations, and the forensic dentist has to resort to other identification techniques. Therefore, it is concluded that the main odontolegal techniques for human identification purposes besides the dental arch are: palatine rugoscopy, skull anatomy, and smile photographs.