Forensic odontology in the disaster victim identification process.

Abstract

Disaster victim identification (DVI) is an intensive and demanding task involving specialists from various disciplines. The forensic dentist is one of the key persons who plays an important role in the DVI human identification process. In recent years, many disaster incidents have occurred that challenged the DVI team with various kinds of difficulties related to disaster management and unique situations in each disaster. New technologies have been developed to make the working process faster and more effective and the different DVI protocols have been evaluated and improved. The aim of this article is to collate all information regarding diagnostic tools and methodologies pertaining to forensic odontological DVI, both current and future. It can be concluded that lessons learned from previous disaster incidents have helped to optimize working protocols and to develop new tools that can be applied in future DVI operation. The working procedures have been greatly improved by newly developed technologies.