Insights into dental age estimation: introducing multiple regression data from a Black South African population on modified gustafson's criteria.

Dental Age Estimation (DAE) is an effective instrument of the rule of law for verifying dubious age claims in living individuals. Once tooth development is complete, only degenerative dental characteristics can be used for this purpose. The influence of ethnicity on these degenerative dental characteristics has not been clarified.

The relevance of taurodontism in forensic dental age estimation.

Taurodontism is a dental morphological anomaly characterized by enlarged pulp cavities repositioned towards the apical region of the tooth, coupled with shortened root structures. Molars are commonly affected by this alteration. Certain populations exhibit up to 48% prevalences for this dental alteration, underscoring its significance in dental age estimation (DAE).

Studying eruption patterns of mandibular third molars for forensic age assessment: Introducing current reference data from a population of black South Africans.

Introduction: Evaluation of the eruption of mandibular third molars in orthopantomograms (OPGs) is a method of forensic age assessment. The objective of our study was to provide valid reference data for this trait within a population of black South Africans. The study was guided by the criteria for reference studies in age assessment.

The "hypopigmented" bitemark: a clinical and histologic appraisal.

So-called "hypopigmented" bitemark patterns, commonly seen but not limited to dark skinned individuals, can be of value in forensic investigations. The process of aging bitemarks observed on skin is controversial and without guidelines. This report analyzes tissue obtained from the site of a hypopigmented bitemark using special histochemical stains for the identification of melanin pigment, and a panel of immunohistochemical markers to aid in the aging process.

A systematic review of 3D scanners and computer assisted analyzes of bite marks: searching for improved analysis methods during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The global Covid-19 pandemic has forced forensic dentists to improve infection control methods. This search investigated the practical utilization of different 3D scanners to record and to analyze bite marks in the skin- and inanimate objects with this aim in mind. A systematic review of the literature using keywords like "human bite mark", "bite mark analyzes", "3D analyzes", "3D scanning", "forensic odontology", and "forensic dentistry" was performed in three scientific databases: MEDLINEOvid®, Pubmed® and Google Scholar.

Validation of Roberts' method using root canal width patterns as a mandibular maturity marker in determining the 18-year threshold.

The South African Bill of Rights and the Children's Act define a 'child' as a person under the age of 18 years. The age of 18 years is therefore significant for legal purposes in South Africa. The third molar is an important indicator in determining the 18-year threshold.

Are animals shrinking due to climate change? Temperature-mediated selection on body mass in mountain wagtails.

Climate change appears to affect body size of animals whose optimal size in part depends on temperature. However, attribution of observed body size changes to climate change requires an understanding of the selective pressures acting on body size under different temperatures. We examined the link between temperature and body mass in a population of mountain wagtails (Motacilla clara) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, between 1976 and 1999, where temperature increased by 0.

Tongue position and its relation to the cause of death and sequential stages of body decomposition observed during 608 forensic post-mortems.

The purpose of this study was to document tongue position and its relation to the cause of death and sequential stages of body decomposition, as observed during the routine forensic pathological examination of bodies. The sample of 608 included all bodies examined by the first and third authors during the period April 2016 to September 2016. Tongue position was recorded in all cases where position of the tongue could be visually determined.

Age estimation based on Willems method versus new country-specific method in South African black children.

Aim: The aims of our study were to develop new maturity scores for dental age estimation in South African black children according to the Willems method, which was developed based on Belgian Caucasian (BC) reference data (Willems et al. J Forensic Sci 46(4):893-895, 2001), and to compare age prediction performance of both methods.

Subjects And Methods: A total of 986 panoramic radiographs of healthy South African black (SAB) children (493 males and 493 females) in the age range of 4.

The Effects of the Refugee Crisis on Age Estimation Analysis over the Past 10 Years: A 16-Country Survey.

Dental age estimation (AE) tests are routinely done on living and deceased persons. There is anecdotal evidence suggesting an increase in age estimations due to the refugee crisis. Our aim is to determine the reasons and methods for performing dental AE tests in both living and deceased individuals.

An analysis of dental intercanine distance for use in court cases involving bite marks.

High levels of crime in South Africa and the resulting court cases requiring bite mark evidence have necessitated continuous research into the prevalence and interrelationship of recognisable dental features present in bite marks. This study represents the largest data set of descriptive statistics related to intercanine distance, in which the means, standard deviations, medians and interquartile ranges across four racial groups were determined. Intercanine distances were also statistically weighted by determining the common, uncommon and very uncommon values for each of the racial groups.

Tongue protrusion as an indicator of vital burning.

In the forensic assessment of burned bodies, the question of whether the victim was exposed to the fire before or after death is of crucial importance. Several external signs have been used in the past to indicate heat exposure prior to the death of the victim but these did not include tongue protrusion. The internal signs of heat exposure are generally regarded as much more important than those observed externally.

The individualisation of a dog bite mark: a case study highlighting the bite mark analysis, with emphasis on differences between dog and human bite marks.

A person who keeps or controls a dog in his own interest is liable "without fault" should that dog cause harm to any person. By owning a dog, man welcomes into his home a beast that preserves much of its primordial self, and is capable of inflicting a fatal bite wound. The courts may require the forensic expert to identify which specific dog caused the damage or fatal bite in an effort to establish the owner/controller of the animal.

The application of affine transformations in matching distorted forensic samples with a common origin.

The practice of forensic odontology regularly requires the forensic dental expert to establish a degree of concordance between two objects, one or both of which have undergone minimal degrees of warping, shrinkage and distortion collectively described as deformations. These comparisons can be between the suspect's or victim's dentition and bite marks on inanimate objects/skin, two radiological images, palatal rugae patterns, dental arches, lip prints and other unique scenarios which are presented in forensic odontological cases. This paper will define the mathematical concept of affine transformation as it pertains to forensic matters and explains how it can be applied to a case study involving pattern deformations.

Reconstruction of deformed bite marks using affine transformations.

Bite marks inflicted on animate and inanimate objects will undergo a certain degree of deformation. This fact remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks when analyzing evidence for court presentation. It has been demonstrated that the reliability of pattern association analysis will not be affected by minimal degrees of warping, shrinkage, and distortion.

The challenges and effects of globalisation on forensic dentistry.

This paper deals with the challenges faced by forensic dentists in a world in which globalisation has become a reality. People travelling across the globe on a daily basis become victims of violent crime, terrorist attacks, human displacement, natural and man made disasters. This has forced colleagues in the profession to participate in joint operations exposing inadequacies which need urgent attention.

An integrated technique for the analysis of skin bite marks.

The high number of murder, rape, and child abuse cases in South Africa has led to increased numbers of bite mark cases being heard in high courts. Objective analysis to match perpetrators to bite marks at crime scenes must be able to withstand vigorous cross-examination to be of value in conviction of perpetrators. An analysis technique is described in four stages, namely determination of the mark to be a human bite mark, pattern association analysis, metric analysis and comparison with the population data, and illustrated by a real case study.

A technique to capture, analyze, and quantify anterior teeth rotations for application in court cases involving tooth marks.

Anterior teeth within the human dentition have a specific numerical rotation value. Bite marks show an array of angled indentations, abrasions, microlacerations, and contusions. These marks generally represent the incisal surfaces of the suspect's dentition reflecting the rotation values of the teeth in the dental arch.

Flow cytometric evaluation of postmortem pulp DNA degradation.

During postmortem autolysis, cellular organelles and nuclear DNA break down into their constituent parts. DNA flow cytometric analysis was applied to study the denaturation of splenic cell DNA as a possible method for postmortem interval determination. DNA denaturation continued for 72 hours at a constant rate, with no intact DNA peaks thereafter.