Forensic dentists can have an important role in the identification of bodies, writes Theresa Judge.
Forensic dentist Prof David Whittaker was given the unenviable task of trying to identify the victims of notorious mass murderers, Fred and Rosemary West.
Some of the 12 young women, whose bodies were found in Gloucester in 1994, had been dead for 10-15 years and police had no idea who they were. At the time around 10,000 women were on official missing persons lists.
Remarkably Whittaker, working without any dental records, finally managed to identify all of them, reflecting advances made in forensic dentistry.
He was able to take the information he had about the victims' teeth and facial structures and use computer 3D construction techniques to create an image of the women's faces. These were then matched with photographs of missing women and, through a process of elimination, each body was eventually identified.
Whittaker says the process of identification is important not only for the victims' families but also for the police. "The police didn't know who these women were and you can't easily prosecute unless you know the identify of the victims . . . once you have a name then the police can investigate that person and produce other evidence and pull in other bits information," he says.
Whittaker, who is professor of forensic dentistry at the University of Cardiff, was in Ireland at the weekend to address the conference of the Irish Dental Association.
The identification of bodies is just one part of the work of a forensic dentist. "The other major contribution to the courts lies in the interpretation of the teeth and oral structures as weapons," Whittaker says.
He has been involved in many high-profile cases internationally - in one current case in Norway an effort is being made to convict a man who was acquitted of a murder some 30 years ago. Whittaker has been able to match bite marks left on the body to the suspect's teeth, confirming evidence produced at the original trial.
Identification of bite marks is also important in many abuse cases. "Bite marks are actually quite common in sexual abuse, either rape or child abuse, or grievious bodily harm type events or murder," he says.
His unit at the University of Cardiff deals with about 80 cases every year where bite marks have to be identified. In the case of child abuse it can be established whether a bite mark is from an adult or a child.
Whittaker says there are only four specialised training courses in forensic dentistry in the world - in Cardiff, Canada, Norway and Australia - and that Irish dentists may have difficulty accessing training.
He says that if a professional forensic dentist is not readily available to the police, the danger is that some evidence from bitemarks may be missed in murder, rape or sex abuse cases.
A gap in forensic dentistry services in Ireland is confirmed by Hugh Barry, a retired oral surgeon and senior lecturer in the Dublin dental school who describes himself as the State's "de facto" forensic dentist from 1974 to 2002.
Barry says there is no official forensic dentist in Ireland, but the state pathologist calls in the assistance of people with expertise in the area when needed.However, he believes "there should be a formalised arrangement where trained people are retained by the State either on a regional or central basis. There probably isn't enough work to justify a full-time position, but we do need someone who is doing enough work so their expertise is maintained."
Barry was involved in identifying bodies from a number of tragedies including the Stardust and Whiddy oil terminal fires and the Air India crash. He also worked on some child abuse cases and on a case where an IRA member was linked to a crime scene by a bite mark he left on an apple.