PANAJI
Department head, Dr Ajit Dinkar said his team has been helping police in investigations and has successfully identified the age in 96 cases based on dental records while tracking 28 accused with the help of bite marks left on the body of the victim.
Being the second place in India to take up the issue of Forensic Dentistry in the country, little is usually spoken of the work, the department has put in to dispose off cases. In addition, the department has also been working on various factors including age determination, person identification and gender determination.
One such study the department is currently involved in, is determination of height from skull measurements. PG Diploma student Nivedita Chinam is currently working on the study and has already used details of 600 patients to derive a method of estimation.
“The current study involves a sample case of 600 patients so that there is a big range taken into consideration and it increases the rate of accuracy in future cases too. Just as we were able to devise through our past studies on aspects like age and gender determination from dental and skull records, this study too will be able to tune the size of the head to the height of the person,” said Dr. Dinkar.
Sixteen years since the introduction of the PG Diploma course in Forensic Dentistry, 32 students have passed out with as many as 23 thesis being produced. “Based on these studies, we are able to give dental age estimation to the level of plus or minus three months, which have always been accurate,” he added.
Many of the cases are referred to the department from its neighboring Goa Medical College. Cases Dr Dinkar has testified in have included studying how bite marks can be used in identifying accused in rape and child abuse cases.
“We have various methods, including a computerised and a photographic method to reach these estimations and formulas too that we have created through the studies ourselves,” he said.
The department has also studied palate patterns that have lead to identifying persons that are beyond recognition. Lip prints too have been used to study robberies and have successfully identified the perpetrators.
The department has also worked with Padre Conceicao College of Engineering (PCCE) to develop a software to identify persons based on ear patterns. “We extract features from the ear which can be used in identifying people at ATMs and babies when they are born,” said Dr Dinkar.
Despite all the positive work, the department has expressed the need for a Cone Beam CT scan to help generate 3 dimensional images of jaws and skulls. A proposal for the same has been presented to the state government.
