Science & Justice
Volume 47, Issue 1 , Pages 19-23, May 2007

A survey of the incidence of missing anterior teeth: Potential value in bite mark analysis

Department of Oral Pathology, School of Clinical Dentistry, The University of Sheffield, Claremont Crescent, Sheffield, S10 2TA, UK

Received 7 November 2005; accepted 25 May 2006.

Abstract 

Bite mark analysis involves comparison of individual dental characteristics between a dentition and the bite injury. A bite mark injury may result from sexual assault, or physical assault, and defensive injuries, and as such can be used to link a suspect to a victim or vice versa. Missing teeth are one of the characteristics that could implicate or exclude a suspected biter. However frequency data for use by forensic odontologists can only be collated from epidemiological studies. Therefore an audit was undertaken of missing anterior teeth in adult patients (n=1010) attending for treatment, gathering data that could be more relevant to odontology.

One in five of the sample presented with missing teeth that were either replaced with a denture (11%), not replaced (6%) or missing with the gap closed (2%).

Keywords: Forensic odontology, Bite marks, Tooth characteristics, Uniqueness

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PII: S1355-0306(07)00004-4

doi:10.1016/j.scijus.2006.05.001

Science & Justice
Volume 47, Issue 1 , Pages 19-23, May 2007

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