Current dissertations

Institute of History, Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine

Doctoral candidate

Jelena Isirinovic

Working title of the dissertation

The history of the development of dental forensics

Abstract

The subject of the dissertation is a medical-historical description of the emergence of dental forensics up to its institutionalization and establishment in Germany. Forensics is an extensive scientific and technical field that serves to investigate criminal acts and clarify the causes of death. The term forensics has its origins in ancient Rome. It is derived from the Latin word forum (marketplace), as at that time all court hearings, interrogations and investigations took place in the marketplace.

Forensic dentistry is a branch of forensics and is used to identify corpses by examining their teeth, jaws and dental conditions ante and post mortem. Identifications were already carried out in the Middle Ages on the basis of dentures. Dental forensics began with a tragic fire at the Bazar de la Charité in Paris on May 4, 1897, in which 129 people died. The founding father of forensic dentistry, Oscar Amoёdo y Valdes from Cuba, was not involved in the identification of the bodies himself, but he interviewed the people involved and published his findings in his handbook "L'Art Dentaire de Medicine Legale", thus becoming a pioneer in this field. Forensic odonto-stomatology is applied to victims of natural disasters, fire, airplane, ship, train and traffic disasters as well as crimes. It also deals with the examination and classification of bite marks, sex determination, age diagnostics, the assessment of maltreatment in the oral and maxillofacial region and, to a lesser extent, the investigation of treatment errors. In Germany, forensic criminal technology is integrated internally in the Federal Criminal Police Offices and the State Criminal Police Offices. Since 1976, the Working Group for Forensic Odonto-Stomatology (AKFOS) of the German Society of Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine and the German Society of Forensic Medicine have been working on forensic odontology. Werner Hahn (1912-2011), former Director of the Clinical Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Kiel University and former board member of the DGZMK, deserves special mention here. He founded the AKFOS interdisciplinary working group in 1976 and from the outset also campaigned for further training to become a "specialist dentist for forensic odonto-stomatology", but without success.

A look at the history of medical progress in dental forensics reveals a characteristic aspect of the modern era. The special methods and techniques of forensic dentistry make it possible to investigate and solve even the most serious criminal cases. As a result, dental forensics has become an indispensable part of forensics.