The use of gelling agents to preserve burnt teeth within the dental alveoli for dental human identification - a study utilising sheep mandibles

Dental comparison is one of the primary methods of scientific identification of severely incinerated human remains. However, due to the fragile nature of the remains dental structures may be lost or damaged during recovery and transportation, limiting the amount of evidence available for examination. In addition to protecting the head, stabilization of the oral structures with an adhesive substance that will not interfere with the dental examination is ideal. A number of materials have been described in previous studies, however, no optimal method has yet to be indicated. Many of these materials contain petrochemicals, which have been shown to be a contamination risk. Wheatpaste solution has been demonstrated to be a viable alternative but has demonstrated handling issues and is not optimal in some environments. This study explores the stabilization of burnt teeth utilizing gelatin and agar solutions as alternatives to wheatpaste. Like wheatpaste solution, these materials are inexpensive, simple to use and are free from petrochemicals. Anterior sections of sheep mandibles were incinerated and subsequently solutions of agar, gelatin or wheatpaste were applied. The jaw fragments were then subjected to vibration and the number of teeth retained within the bone was recorded and compared to untreated incinerated jaw fragments. Although agar solution demonstrated serious handling issues, gelatin solution provided stabilization equivalent to that of wheatpaste. Gelatin also performed well at lower temperature conditions under which wheatpaste has been shown to perform poorly.