Dental identification system based on unwrapped CT images

Dental comparison of postmortem (PM) and ante-mortem (AM) radiographs provides one of the best avenues for the forensic identification of human remains. Nevertheless conventional dental comparison is labor-intensive, subjective, and has several inherent drawbacks. This paper presents a semi-automated image analysis system designed to assist the forensic dentist with the task of identifying human remains. This system overcomes the drawbacks of conventional dental comparison because it is based on the comparison of radiograph-like images reconstructed from PM computed tomography (CT) data with AM digitized conventional radiographs. The efficacy of the system is demonstrated using 4 dental CT data sets and 32 digitized bitewing radiographs obtained from routine clinical practice.

I. Introduction

Forensic dentistry is a branch of forensics concerned with establishing the identity of a deceased individual from his/her post-mortem (PM) dentition using ante-mortem (AM) dental records. It is one of the best avenues for human identification because teeth are not only highly resistant to decomposition, but are also unique to an individual. Conventional dental comparison involves manually summarizing dental records and radiographs. A PM summary can then be compared to AM summaries to establish a shortlist of possible identities. Manual comparisons of the candidate AM radiographs with the PM radiographs are necessary to make a positive identification. In particular the forensic dentist commonly confirms the identity of the human remains based on tooth features such as tooth morphology.