Background: The assimilation between three-dimensional (3D) imaging techniques and dental forensic science can provide rich and stable information for human identification. This study aimed to determine the effective number and surfaces of teeth for dental identification through the 3D imaging approach. Material and methods: In the present study, maxillary dental casts were fabricated from subjects who met the inclusion criteria and scanned using a 3D scanner Vivid 910. Rapidform XOS/SCAN software was used to create and trim the 3D point cloud data. Subsequently, two types of 3D surface data of dental casts were registered and the root mean square errors (RMSEs) between subjects were calculated using iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm in MATLAB. Two sets of experiments with 120 combinations of the superimposed 3D dataset were designed, termed as experiments 1 and 2. Results: In experiment 1, the difference between subjects was clearly distinguished with a minimum of six teeth of the dental arch. The results of experiment 2 suggest that the labial surfaces of the anterior teeth are sufficient to be used for dental identification. Conclusion: Through these experiments for all possible pairs of subjects, a clear difference was observed in the RMSE between the genuine and imposter pairs. These results indicate the potential of using the 3D imaging technique to achieve highly accurate human identification. It is suggested that a future study with a larger sample number will evaluate the robustness and accuracy of this method.

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Background: The applicability of dental age estimation has been expanded to meet a variety of medico-legal needs, law enforcement, and disaster victim identification. The objective of this study is to examine the applicability of the Willems method for Indonesian children. Material and method: A total of 110 panoramic radiographs of the patients (6-14 years old) who met the inclusion criteria were obtained from the Department of Forensic Odontology and Department of Radiology, Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia. Estimated dental age (EDA) was assessed using the Willems method by two blinded examiners. The statistical analysis was carried out using IBM® SPSS® Statistics version 23.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). Results and discussion: The mean of the chronological age (CA) in this study is 11.30 ± 1.43 years (boys) and 11.65 ± 1.55 years (girls). The overall mean difference between CA and EDA for boys and girls is − 0.08 ± 0.76 and − 0.31 ± 0.97, respectively. This study showed that the mean age difference in girls was more significant than in boys. The growth spurt timing between boys and girls might cause a difference in dental maturation, whereas the onset of the pubertal growth spurt in girls is about 2 years earlier than in boys. In general, girls start and finish their dental development earlier than boys end. Conclusion: The present study suggests that the dental age estimation methods proposed by Willems can be considered as an applicable method for the children population in Surabaya, both boys and girls. However, a detailed study may be required while applying this approach to the 11-14-year-old girl population in Surabaya, as a substantial underestimation was observed in this community.

Indonesia is an archipelagic country bordered by tectonically active zones with intense seismicity and volcanism. This condition is often associated with a high-risk situation of disasters in Indonesia. Forensic identification is a necessary procedure to reveal an individual’s identity. An identity, including sex and age, is needed to build a conclusion of human identification. Dental age estimation is a subfield of forensic odontology which focuses on establishing an individual’s age. Tooth development, biochemical, and postformation changes are the parameters for estimating dental age. This review discusses the applicable dental age estimation method for children and adolescents in Indonesia. Several articles that have previously studied dental age estimation in Indonesia were reviewed for this manuscript. On reviewing these articles, it was found that the Demirjian method, the Willems method, and the Al Qahtani method are useful in this population with higher accuracy than other methods.

Background The dentition of modern humans has evolved from their hominid ancestors to their current form. Factors regarding the changes of lifestyle such as dietary habits and usage of tools have affected the evolution of human dentition. This article aimed to discuss the effect of dietary changes on the evolution of human teeth. An online literature search in the PubMed database was conducted according to the inclusion criteria of this study. Main body The culture transition from a hunter-gatherer society to agriculture is followed by dietary changes, which result in a decrease of tooth wear due to more refined food sources in agricultural intensification. By analyzing the microwear pattern such as shear, striation, and pattern of the buccal teeth, the dietary hypothesis based on the occlusal tooth microwear analysis could be examined. Conclusion The dietary hypothesis based on the occlusal tooth microwear study could be tested by analyzing the microwear pattern (shear, striation, pattern) of the buccal teeth. Posterior teeth are more closely related to diet, while anterior teeth are related to non-dietary tooth-use behaviors, or using the teeth as a tool or third hand which causes more limited striations at the labial surface.

Objectives. Dental age estimation has been employed in a range of legal operations as well as catastrophe victim identification. Dental age estimation is regarded as an appropriate method for estimating a person’s age because there is a high association between age and teeth. This study aims to assess the suitability of the Al Qahtani and Willems dental age estimation approaches for the Indonesian children and adolescent population. Methods. A total of 150 panoramic radiographs of patients (75 boys and 75 girls, 6-17 years old) were obtained from the Department of Radiology, Airlangga University, Indonesia. One researcher analyzed estimated dental age (EDA) twice in a one-week time-lapse using the Willems and Al Qahtani methods. The statistical analysis of the present study was carried out using IBM® SPSS® Statistics version 25.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). Results. The mean of this study’s chronological age (CA) was 11.60 ± 3.41. Using the Willems method, the mean difference between CA and EDA for boys and girls was -0.41 ± 0.90. The mean difference between CA and EDA for boys and girls is 0.33 ± 0.61 using the Al Qahtani method. Conclusions. According to the findings of this investigation, the dental age estimation method proposed by Al Qahtani and Willems can be applied to the population in Surabaya. However, a comprehensive study is required when using this method because the data revealed significant statistical disparities between the two methods.

Lip prints and bloodstains may be left behind in many crime scenes and may reveal the identity of the victim and the suspected person. This study was aimed to investigate the inheritance pattern of lip prints and blood groups among parents and their offspring in the Javanese population. 105 subjects from 25 Javanese family frames participated in this study. Lips print pattern was recorded and analyzed according to Suzuki and Tsuchihashi classification. A blood group test was also performed for each subject. The statistical analysis carried out using IBM® SPSS® Statistics version 23.0 (IBM, Armonk, New York, USA). The results of this study revealed that type II was the predominant pattern of lip prints among the Javanese population (34.3%). Blood group A was the predominant type in subjects with lip prints type II (15%). The result also shows that the lip prints pattern in girls tends to be inherited from the mother. However, the inheritance of lip prints pattern in boys couldn't be determined precisely. The heritability of lip prints pattern was observed between parents and their offspring. Also, there was a tendency of blood groups to have a certain pattern of lip prints.

Age estimation is one of the important components in forensic science used for personal identification, biological profile reconstruction, and help narrowing the search possibilities. Age estimation can be done by various methods and biological evidence, such as the human face. The human face is one of biometrics that provides a variety of information.  The purpose of this article is to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of age estimation with face using smartphone for forensic identification based on previous studies and experiences. Age estimation by face is based on age progression that causes attrition and degeneration on soft tissue. With the development of technology, age estimation by face can be done with applications or websites on smartphone. In general, the utilization of smartphone can reduce waste, pollution, research cost and easier to save and share. A lot of applications have been developed and free to download. Unfortunately, the accuracy of its results is unknown. In conclusion, the applications for age estimation on smartphone give quiet good results and can be used as a supporting tool to estimate age in forensic identification.