Analysis of Residual Dental Materials Existing on the Teeth and Its Application to Individual Identification

치아에 잔존하는 치과재료의 성분분석을 통한 개인식별에의 응용

In identifying bodies that are severely decayed or damaged, methods using fingerprints and various biochemical tests are known to have its limits. To overcome this, forensic odontological method which is based on the analysis of the cranium, tooth and dental restoration is used to enhance the accuracey of individual identification. For this reason, I have come to analysis of the dental materials that exists between the teeth that is perceived to have been previously restored and the one adjacent to it. By analyzing the constituents of gold crown-restored, non-precious metal-restored, gold inlay-restored and amalgam -restored teeth, and adjacent teeth using EDX(energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis) which was invented to analyze very small amount of elements, the nature of the restoration could be predicted and the results obtained were as follows. 1. Some of constitute of gold alloy was extracted from residual cement of gold crown restoration, but that was not extracted from the restored tooth and the one adjacent to it. 2. Some of constituents of non-precious metal alloy was extracted both in the residual cement on the tooth with no-precious metal restoration and in the tooth with the restoration itself. However, none of its constituents were found in the tooth adjacent to it. 3. Some of constituents of gold alloy were found in the residual cement of gold inlay, but they were not found in the restored tooth and the adjacent tooth. 4. Some of constituents of amalgam alloy were found both in tooth restored with amalgam and in the adjacent tooth. From the results obtained above, it is possible to utilize the data obtained from analyizing residual dental materials in a more effective way. This data compensates for the lost data due to any harm done to the restorations prior to individual identification and further enhances the accuracy. Therefore, it could be concluded that this process of analyzing residual dental materials could be beneficial to individual identification in the area of forensic odontoldogy.