Inclusion of Forensic Odontologist in Team of Forensic Facial Approximation-A Proposal and Technical Note
HM01-HM04
Correspondence
Dr. Aman Chowdhry,
Associate Professor, Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Room No. 303, Faculty of Dentistry,
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi-110025, Delhi, India.
E-mail: achowdhry@jmi.ac.in
Forensic Facial Approximation (FFA) or forensic facial reconstruction is a three-dimensional recreation of face of an entity from skull remains which adequately resembles deceased person to allow identification of individual. FFA involves an assimilation of anatomy, forensic science, anthropology, osteology and above all craftsmanship to artistically recreate the identity of the deceased. The aim of the present study was to highlight skills and attributes of dentist/forensic odontologists qualifying him to be part of FFA team. By careful appraisal using various search engines and hand search, we discuss to propose inclusion of a dental expert (preferably a forensic odontologist) to be a part of FFA team based on their sound scientific knowledge about human anatomy, musculature as well as exposure to various hard tissue and soft tissue landmarks that are taught as a part of undergraduate dental curriculum all over the globe. Practical training, material knowledge, artistic handiwork with adept use of various hand instruments given to dentists/forensic odontologist may be extremely beneficial when working on the skull, hence qualifies him/her as an expert to include in team of FFA.