Meticulous Examination In Forensic Dentistry

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30827, 12 August 1965, Page 1

Meticulous Examination In Forensic Dentistry

“A dead body can be singularly uncooperative,” said Dr. F. R. Shroff, of the Otago University Dental School, emphasising the great importance of meticulous examination in identifying human bodies from their teeth when he lectured on forensic dentistry in Christchurch last evening.

Dr. Shroff said that a denture washed up on a Dunedin beach, and sent by the police to an eminent prosthetist for examination, as a lead to the identification of a supposed “missing person,” was said by the expert to belong to a person at least 65 years of age. But closer examination by another dental expert revealed letters scratched on the surface of the denture, which, when chemically treated, actually showed a person’s name—"which corresponded exactly with a person known to have drowned in the area not long before,” said Dr. Shroff. Dr. Shroff, who is associate professor of dental pathology at the Dental School, used this illustration to emphasise further the need for the meticulous examination of detail in forensic dentistry. This was just as important as the knowledge of dental characteristics, he said. Dr. Shroff gave a special lecture heard by dentists, the police, members of the recently-formed Medico-legal Society, and legal administrators—including the Crown Prosecutor (Mr C. M. Roper) and the Coroner (Mr A. T. Bell). OBLIGATION All dentists, said Dr. Shroff, had both a moral and legal obligation to make their services available if called upon bv administrators of the law. The dentist would be called on as an expert. His main requirements would be the

knowledge of otherwise unnoticed dental characteristics, and his capacity and patience for exhaustive examination of every detail. As further illustration of the latter, Dr. Shroff quoted a case of an object, said to be a discoloured tooth, found in a cake at a women’s after-noon-tea party Complaints of the baker’s product were made to the authorities, and the object examined. The Inspector of Health thought it was a tooth, said Dr. Shroff. The Government Analyst thought it was a tooth, and a dentist thought it was a tooth. But on a really detailed examination, involving X-raying and sectioning, it turned out to be part of a datestone.

Yet another example was the complaint about a monkey’s tooth found in a chocolate peanut bar. As the peanuts had come from Ghana, it was suggested that it must be a monkey’s tooth. This time, said Dr. Shroff, skilled examination showed it to be part of a human tooth, which the complainant had probably broken off when biting the chocolate bar—“he was trying to get a few free peanut bars out of the firm by his complaint,” Dr. Shroff said. IDENTIFYING BODIES On the identification of human bodies and remains by reference to the teeth—a common call in the field of crime—Dr. Shroff said that the forensic dentist must have good knowledge of the characteristics on which identification could be based, and be prepared for a meticulous examination of every possible detail. “A dead body can be singularly unco-operative," Dr. Shroff said. On the need for meticulous detail, Dr. Shroff quoted the famous ‘Tyjama Girl" case of 1934—a victim who had defied identification for 10 years, in spite of the widest circulation of her description, including the description of her teeth. But it was subsequently found that the latter was inaccurate —

“there was error in the description of fillings in the pre-molar teeth, and a confusion between the first and second molar teeth,” Dr. Shroff said.

Once the dental description had been rectified, the “Pyjama Girt” was soon identified as Linda Agostini, and her murderer brought to justice, said Dr. Shroff. As yet, there were no specialists in forensic dentistry in New Zealand, said Dr. Shroff. Overseas it was established as a specialty, especially in Scandinavia, where there were university courses in it. “But it will come here in the course of time.” Dr. Shroff said. Dr. Shroff’s lecture was arranged by the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Dental Association.