The Pathological Exception: Challenging the Normal-Tooth Bias in Forensic Odontology

Abstract

Forensic odontology has long recognised the exceptional value of the human dentition in identification. Teeth can withstand decomposition, trauma and environmental extremes when much of the body has been lost. Tooth morphology, restorations, missing teeth and treatment history can provide valuable evidence for establishing identity.¹⁻³ But there is another aspect of the tooth that deserves attention: its biology.
Much of forensic casework relies on biological patterns that are sufficiently predictable to permit systematic assessment. Dental age estimation, for example, uses developmental and age-related changes in the dentition, while comparative identification depends on matching anatomical and treatment-related features in antemortem and postmortem records. These methods are well established, but their interpretation is influenced by biological variation, population characteristics and the condition of the tissues being examined.⁴⁻⁷