Dr Simon Crewe

Bite Mark Analysis

Assailants occasionally leave tooth marks on their victims’ bodies. Unlike a bruise or ‘black eye’, there may be characteristics in the mark which can identify the assailant. There may be characteristics which can exclude other suspects.

These marks change with time, and since especially in live victims, the first person to suspect a bite mark is never the odontologist, it is important to obtain a good undistorted photograph, with a scale clearly shown in the plane of the mark, as soon as possible.

Later, the odontologist can take impressions of a suspect’s teeth, and compare measured photographs of the casts with the photographs of the injury. An opinion can then be given as to whether the suspect is excluded or not.

Age estimation

The development of the teeth follows a fairly regular timetable, and by examining the dental development of an individual, a fairly accurate estimation of age can be given, up to about twenty-one years.

This has become useful in determining the rights of young asylum seekers, who arrive with no documentation, but the knowledge that the younger they appear to be, the ‘better’ their entitlement appears to be.

Disaster Victim Identification

If a motorcycle crashes into a tree, and explodes, leaving two bodies with no paperwork, the police will discover that the owner and her girlfriend are missing. The dental records of the two will be sought, and the two bodies identified. If the records are inadequate, they only need to distinguish between the two bodies to establish which is which.

If a commercial airliner crashes into a hotel, the situation is a little more complicated. The aeroplane is technically ‘closed’, so the people aboard are known, but it cannot be certain who was in the hotel at the time.

Expert Identification for the Courts

Identification of the dead is not usually a problem. People are usually identified by relatives, or documents such as passports, or identity devices such as military ‘dog tags’, or hospital ID bracelets.

If the death triggers an inquest, one of the Coroner’s duties is to determine identity beyond reasonable doubt.

If the face has become too disfigured to compare with photographs, or to show to relatives, reasonable doubt as to the identity may exist, and the value of identity documents may be questioned.