The Role of the Forensic Odontologist in Disaster Victim Identification: A Brief Review

Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) is a culmination of several individuals that include rescue teams, recovery teams, forensic pathologists, odontologists and anthropologists. All these personnel work collaboratively to bring together their respective fields to identifying victims in a disaster. Factors needing consideration after a disaster include the number of victims, condition of remains including the location of the disaster, acceptable scientific methods of identification, safe data collection and storage, presence of electrical grids, water supply and proper waste disposal arrangements. This review focuses the discussion on identification using dental evidence and the key learning’s of the past and the future techniques that may be used to make the identification process easier and efficient in terms of manpower and technology.