ID-ing by dental records

[FabIsGettingFit]

Whenever I read that someone has been identified using dental records I have assumed it is by seeing that teeth numbers 1 and 4 have fillings on the body and that matches with the dental card. But won't there be lots of people who have fillings in those teeth?

I have some pretty strange fillings that are i suppose unique to me.

Also, everyone bite is unique to them, they use bite marks as evidence in court, like fingerprints. Its not just the fillings.

I assumed it was the overall dental pattern ie fillings, which teeth were present and in what condition etc. Isn't it normally used to confirm/refute id so far from a random guess.

I think you can pin down age more or less according to how the teeth have developed, and sometimes regions, according to whether floride has been added to the water. Some people will also have had dental x-rays and moulds done I suppose, and fillings are made of different things.

I've just started an OU course: Elements of Forensic Science. The course book has this to say:

As a consequence of their practical indestructibility, teeth can provide the best means of personal identification [...]. The arrangement and characteristics of the teeth and the treatment to which they have been subjected during life (e.g. repairs, restoration, extractions) mean that human dentition is, potentially, uniquely identifiable. The postmortem examination of teeth and their comparison with antemortem dental records requires the expert knowledge of the forensic odontologist.

The course book then illustrates this with a case study of the identification of a body in 1942 using dental records.

I would think, as LIZS says, it would be the overall pattern as compared with the body. Just one difference would rule out that possibility. One set of remains might have a similar pattern to somebody else's pattern, but there will be other factors - age, sex, height, whatever - but the comparison would be done between the remains and likely possibilities.

And don't worry that you might get laughed off mumsnet, Fab, for the question, I'm more likely to get laughed off for signing up for this OU course.

Thank you huggly.

I will read tmw when I haven't had 3 glasses of wine .

Huggly - have read now and I have learnt something. Thank you

Are you enjoying the course?

Fab - yes, but it's quite a challenge. The real life forensic stuff is quite different from how it's shown on TV. But if it was shown realistically it would take up 95% of each episode! I'm only at the beginning, but it looks to get quite heavy as it goes along, especially all the DNA stuff.