When an unidentified human body is discovered, and authorities do a dental records search, how is that done? Is there a nationwide database of dental records? Are dentists required to send your records to this database? Are there automatic search programs to compare records with discovered remains?
I think they check recent missing person cases (that match sex/size/age).
Brian
Yes, my impression is that they have some likely possibilities as to who the victim is and contact their relatives to find out where they went to the dentist or in smaller areas simply contact all the local dentists and ask “was John Doe a patient of yours?”. If he was they get the records and compare.
I don’t think any national databases exist as they do for fingerprints and DNA.
Dental records are used to confirm the identity of a corpse. If there’s no idea of the identity of the body there’s no point trying to match dental records because there is no national database.
Comparing dental records is done to confirm or rule out an identity. It is not done to find an identity, as fingerprints are.
There is, though, of a sort.
The National Crime Information Center’s Unidentified Person file.
The Unidentified Person file contains records of unidentified people and unidentified body parts that have been recovered by law enforcement and/or corner’s offices.
When the body or part is recovered, the details are entered in to the system. Dental information is included using specific codes determined by specially trained dentists. An example is on the data collection form here, beginning on page 27. This is the guide for Missing Persons, but the one for Unidentified is very similar.
When either a Missing or Unidentified person is placed in NCIC, they are crosschecked by information such as physical characteristics including dental codes, date missing/recovered etc. So if I go missing tomorrow, the police enter me as a missing person, and my body is recovered a month from now partially buried in a sandbar on the Missouri River, if I am entered as an Unidentified Person then the crosscheck should catch that and send an automated notice to both entering agencies.
It’s actually a really neat file, and underutilized. I used to push it hard when it was my job to do training on it.
I asked this question in 2010. This was the STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD answer.
Apologies for the somewhat unorganized post, btw. Had to throw it in in between phone calls. I’d be happy to elaborate if there are any questions.
In the Bali nightclub bombing in 2002 a large number of Indonesians and Australians were killed. A number of Australian families quickly flew to Bali and visually identified their relatives among the casualties. Of the 18 visual identifications nine were incorrect. The assumption they made was ‘my son is a tall fit young man’, but unfortunately that would have described half the nightclub patrons, and were made on badly burnt bodies under incredibly stressful conditions. The high level of misidentification led to changes in the protocols for casualty identification, and showed how important both DNA and dental records were.
A very readable summary of the Bali bombings forensic response here.