[Difficulties in identification of human corpses and skeletal remains on the basis of dental records and examinations].

The entire skull-based complex comparative identification procedure consists of several detailed studies from different disciplines of science. The range of the performed studies predominantly depends on the available and collected comparative material pertaining to the examined individual and the final outcome of the complex identification procedure represents the results of individual stages of the studies. Odontological tests involving the comparison of dentition in the examined human skull with the dentition of the typed person, established by the available comparative material, represent a significant element of the identification procedure. The aim of the investigations was the examination of availability and usefulness of dental records during the identification process. The research was based on expert opinions issued in human-skull based identification processes and performed at Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Medical Sciences in Poznan, in the period between 1996 and 2005. A total of 398 identification procedures carried out in 348 sculls was analyzed. The research was mainly identification of an individual through face reconstruction and a skull/photo comparison. An overall number of 206 computer (digital) face-reconstructions and 263 comparison analyses was done in the above-mentioned period. Statistically, in only 22 cases out of 263 comparison analyses some dental records were available. Even then, dental records were not always relevant. In 4 cases, dental records were either incomplete, inaccurate or unreadable.