I just started wearing braces in my very late forties to correct a misalignment. The realignment will take about a year or so.
If I were to die in a flaming inferno, could my remains be identified through existing dental records or would this not be possible due to the effect of the braces?
Identifying a corpse from dental records is not as easy as you might think from films and TV. There is no central database of dental records for some forensic whizz to search, so it only works if they have a good idea of who the deceased is and who their dentist might be.
DNA and fingerprints are more useful but still depend on there being a record somewhere.
I understood that dental records helped to identify individuals because of the fairly random occurrence of decay and therefore fillings and other dental work in the mouth, so each person’s specific pattern could be reasonably distinctive. Braces should not affect that.
There is some forensic work where people match bite marks to actual people. If you wrought havoc and fear as the Phantom Biter of Olde London Towne, but then secretly got braces, that might give you a pretty good alibi [or a cop show plot at least].
I believe fillings, caps, missing teeth, implants, and the like are most useful for identifying remains based on dental records. They will be specifically listed in dental records and are identifiable from X-rays.
You probably got x-rays before you had braces put on, might get them while you’re wearing braces, and you’ll probably get another set done just after the braces come off. So your dentist has fairly recent x-rays of your teeth, including any fillings, which are probably also helpful for identification purposes.
So if your current dentist’s records are still availalble, they can probably identify you. Unless the fire takes out the dentist’s office as well.
It just means there are twice as many places (your dentist and your orthodontist) where a forensic odontologist can find records for comparison to your charred remains.
Thank you for the answers!