A Comparative Study of Tooth Print in Surfaces of Normal and Fluorosed Teeth as a Biomarker in Forensics for Person Identification

Abstract

Aim The aim is to study, compare and analyse the enamel rod end patterns in healthy and fluorosed teeth for person identification.  Methodology A total of 120 participants were taken for our study, categorized into 2 groups, Group I consists of fluorosed teeth and Group II consists of Normal teeth, each group comprised of 30 males and 30 females. In anteriors, maxillary central incisor and canine and in posteriors, first premolars were selected. So a total of 360 samples were recorded for the analysis. Acetate peel technique was used for recording the tooth print and Verifinger® standard SDK version 11.1 software was used for analysis.  Results Our study showed that the fluorosed teeth showed a difference from complete to incomplete or inter-rupted pattern unlike normal teeth which had a complete pattern only. The variation in the enamel rod end patterns between normal and fluorosed teeth was statistically significant in central incisor and canine respectively but not in premolars. Also the variation in enamel rod end patterns between the gender was statistically significant among central incisor, canine and premolar.  Conclusion Ameloglyphics is a recent evolving forensic tool for personal identification. The procedure is painless and is based on the enamel rod patterns on the surface of tooth.