A Computerized Aid to Dental Identification in Mass Disasters

ABSTRACT

With increasing frequency, dentists are being called upon to assist in the identification of victims of mass disasters. The fundamental procedure in dental identification is the comparison of teeth filled and teeth missing, between the ante-mortem and post-mortem dental records. When fragmentation occurs, this procedure is time-consuming and arduous.

The proposed program will sort and store all ante-mortem dental information. On demand, any post-mortem record can be compared to all the ante-mortem records. The computer will eliminate all impossible matches and print a list of possible candidates for dental identification. This program can be used at a remote site by using a telephone/teletype connection to the computer. Suitable ante-mortem and post-mortem record charts are also presented. Although the dentist remains in complete control of the actual identification procedure much of the tedious filing, sorting and comparing can be done efficiently and quickly by a computer. This computerized identification package was tested on data from an actual air disaster.