Victim identification: The role of incinerated dental materials

In victim identification of incinerated remains, every clue is utilized to establish a connection to ante-mortem identity. While it has been long established that surgically implanted materials such as prostheses can be of particular interest, more recently it has been shown that dental materials and their method of placement can provide useful information. During restorative procedures such as placing a filling or preparing a crown, the tooth structure is altered by the clinician. Such changes can be recognized after incineration and may indicate which procedure was performed on the tooth, even though the restorative material itself may not be present or retrieved. Rather than detail the chemical and structural changes after incineration of the hundreds of dental materials, the chapter also presents some case studies to illustrate how this information may be used in victim identification.