Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Queensland, Australia.
Forensic Medicine Division, Health Sciences Authority; Singapore.
J Forensic Odontostomatol. 2024 Aug 29;42(2):50-59. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.13371851.
The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a forensic odontologist working remotely could accurately undertake forensic dental identifications using videos produced by non-dental forensic staff operating an intra-oral video camera (IOVC). The study's aims were to assess the accuracy and time taken to perform remote forensic dental identifications in this manner.
Eight cadavers from the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID), University of Dundee, UK, were examined by a forensic odontologist via a traditional dental examination. Their dental condition was recorded to serve as ante-mortem records for this study. Videos of each dentition were produced using an IOVC operated by a medical student. Post-mortem records were produced for each dentition from the videos by a remote second forensic odontologist who was not present at the traditional dental examination. The ante-mortem and post-mortem records were then compared, and identification was classified as positively established, possible or excluded.
Established identifications were positively made in all eight cases although there were some non-critical inconsistencies between ante-mortem and post-mortem records. Before the second opinion, 85.6% of the teeth per study subject were charted consistently. After the second opinion, the percentage of consistency increased to 97.2%. Each video on average was about 4.13 minutes in duration and the average time taken to interpret and chart the post-mortem dental examination at the first attempt was 11.63 minutes. The time taken to chart from the videos was greater than is typical of a traditional dental examination.
This pilot study supports the feasibility of undertaking remote dental identification. This novel "tele-dental virtopsy" approach could be a viable alternative to a traditional post-mortem dental examination, in situations where access to forensic dental services is difficult or limited due to geographical, logistical, safety, and/or political reasons.
本研究旨在评估一名法医牙医师是否能够通过非牙科法医人员操作口腔内摄像机（IOVC）拍摄的视频远程准确进行法医牙科鉴定。该研究旨在评估以这种方式进行远程法医牙科鉴定的准确性和所需时间。
英国邓迪大学解剖与人类鉴定中心（CAHID）的 8 具尸体由一名法医牙医师通过传统牙科检查进行检查。他们的牙齿状况被记录下来，作为本研究的生前记录。每个牙齿的视频均由医学生操作 IOVC 制作。远程第二位法医牙医师根据视频制作了每个牙齿的死后记录，该法医牙医师未参加传统牙科检查。然后将生前和死后记录进行比较，并将鉴定结果分类为确定、可能或排除。
在所有 8 例中均做出了确定的鉴定，尽管生前和死后记录之间存在一些非关键的不一致。在进行第二次意见之前，每位研究对象的牙齿中有 85.6%被一致记录。在第二次意见之后，一致性百分比增加到 97.2%。每个视频的平均时长约为 4.13 分钟，第一次尝试解释和记录死后牙科检查的平均时间为 11.63 分钟。从视频中记录的时间比传统牙科检查的时间要长。
这项初步研究支持远程牙科鉴定的可行性。这种新的“远程虚拟牙科检查”方法可能是传统死后牙科检查的可行替代方法，适用于由于地理、后勤、安全和/或政治原因而难以或无法获得法医牙科服务的情况。
