title: Evaluation of dental expertise with intra-oral peri-apical view radiographs for forensic identification.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Identification of a dead person is important in starting the investigation into the circumstances of death. In the absence of forensic odontologist, it is vital that general dentists are able to compare the ante mortem-post mortem (AM-PM) records and with their ability, correctly interpret the individuality of the person.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study wascarried out to find out the accuracy with which undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate dentists can do this comparison, using the simulated AM-PM intra-oral peri-apical (IOPA) view radiographs.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 60 investigators of which 20 undergraduate students, 20 general dentists, 20 post-graduate dentists viewed 10 pairs of simulated AM and PM radiographs and recorded their findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten pairs of simulated AM-PM IOPA view radiographs were given to 60 dentists to investigate their discriminatory potential for dental identification purposes. The results were statistically analyzed.
  
  
  METHODS
  χ(2) -test and Mann-Whitney U-test were carried out to compare the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the three types of examiners (UG, G, PG).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed sensitivity of 59.8%, specificity of 62.6%, accuracy of 61% for undergraduate students, sensitivity of 86.6%, specificity of 87.5%, accuracy of 87% for graduate doctors, sensitivity of 89.3%, specificity of 92.3% and accuracy of 90.5% for post-graduate doctors respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Inexperienced investigators in forensic identification showed fairly acceptable results, therefore, introduction of forensic odontology in an undergraduate course may help general dentists to provide better service, if required, in the absence of a forensic odontologist.
authors.affiliation: Sri Guru Ram Das Dental College and Research Institute, Amritsar, Punjab, India.
authors.forename: Kanwalpreet Kaur
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Bhullar
authors.affiliation: Sri Guru Ram Das Dental College and Research Institute, Amritsar, Punjab, India.
authors.forename: Ramandeep S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Bhullar
authors.affiliation: Tagore Dental College, Chennai, India.
authors.forename: Sundaresan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balagopal
authors.affiliation: SRMC Dental College, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Deemed University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Arathi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ganesh
authors.affiliation: SRMC Dental College, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Deemed University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Mathan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rajan
keywords: Concordant points; dental identification; forensic odontology; forensic science; intra-oral peri-apical view radiographs