[Usefulness of postmortem dental panoramic X-ray photographs taken using a portable radiography apparatus for dental identification].

Fourteen unidentified human corpses were subjected to personal identification between 1999 and 2001. They included 5 drowning victims, three extensively burnt bodies, three skeletonized bodies, two highly putrefied bodies, and a body that had been run over by a train. Antemortem dental records were available in 12 cases, and all were positively identified. For 10 of these cases, antemortem panoramic X-ray photographs were obtained. For postmortem examination, panoramic X-ray photographs were taken using a portable dental panoramic radiography apparatus, LPX7007 (ASAHI ROENTGEN, Japan), during autopsy. Comparison of the ante- and postmortem panoramic X-ray photographs gave accurate and useful information not only about dental treatment but also the anatomical features surrounding the upper and lower jaws. This method is not time-consuming and also has the advantage of allowing dental treatment to be examined extraorally in cases where it is difficult to open the mouth of the corpse.