Post-mortem dental profiling in Palu earthquake and tsunami victims—procedures and limitations

ABSTRACT

On 28 September 2018, an earthquake hit Central Celebes, triggering a tsunami, liquefaction and a landslide. There were approximately 2,256 victims and 1,309 people remain missing. The dry tropical climate combined with seawater exposure made bodies enter a putrefaction state rapidly, and visual identification was not possible. Obtaining any dental antemortem data was almost impossible due to the flood and earthquake destroying most of the healthcare building. Hence, a dental profiling procedure was conducted. Dental charting and age estimation were carried out and photographs were taken. Dental charting and photographs were done in line with the Interpol guide’s standards. Performing a multiple dental age estimation method was not feasible. Clinical age estimation methods were mandatory due to their reliability and short time consumption for Palu victim identification. In children and sub-adult dental age estimation, gingival and alveolar clinical eruption helped to determine their approximate dental age. In adults, root translucency was measured using the American Board of Forensic Odontologists’ (ABFO) No. 2 scale with the Bang and Ramm (1970) method. Dental age estimation with multiple measurement parameters or radiographs was not preferable during this mass disaster due to their time consumption and the overwhelming number of dead bodies.

KEYWORDS:

• Forensic odontology
• mass disaster
• dental profiling
• dental age estimation

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Police Senior Superintendent Lisda Cancer, DDS., MBiotech as Head of DVI Department, Indonesian National Police for the support and assistance during the DVI process and writing this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.