Citation

Nuzzolese E, Lupariello F, Di Vella G. J. Forensic Dent. Sci. 2018; 10(2): 75-78.

Affiliation

Forensic Pathologist, Dipartimento di Scienze Della Sanità Pubblica e Pediatriche, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Medknow Publications)

DOI

10.4103/jfo.jfds_80_17

PMID

30745781

PMCID

PMC6344790

Abstract

Social media applications can be valuable investigative tools in the search for missing and unidentified persons. As yet, no forensic App exists with the aim of assisting the human identification process, through the search of antemortem data to be used as adjunct data in the comparison with postmortem data collected. The aim of this article is to introduce a new application for Smartphones called "Selfie Forensic ID" App which will employ selfie and face photographs as an archive of dental data and dental features of the front teeth of missing persons sharing with Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter Social Networks (available for free download from both Android and Apple store at http://onelink.to/selfieforensic). Features such as diastema rotated or wrongly positioned teeth, lip anomalies, recognizable fixed prosthetics, dental crown discolorations, dental or cutis piercing could represent strong identifiers in the comparison of AM and PM data. The increased number of terrorist attacks and natural disasters which result in the premature death of innocent people underlines the importance of storing personal identification data to avoid bodies remaining unidentified. The authors believe there will be an increased public willingness to share personal ID information through understanding of the ethical and administrative consequences to the families of deceased persons should bodies remain unidentified.

Language: en

Keywords

Dental autopsy; dental identification; forensic sciences; selfie photographs; social media; unidentified persons