Ensie Mirsharif
Disaster victim identification (DVI) is an intensive and demanding task involving specialists from various disciplines. The forensic dentist is one of the key persons who plays an important role in the DVI human identification process. In recent years, many disaster incidents have occurred that challenged the DVI team with various kinds of difficulties related to disaster management and unique situations in each disaster. New technologies have been developed to make the working process faster and more effective and the different DVI protocols have been evaluated and improved. The aim of this article is to collate all information regarding diagnostic tools and methodologies pertaining to forensic odontological DVI, both current and future. It can be concluded that lessons learned from previous disaster incidents have helped to optimize working protocols and to develop new tools that can be applied in future DVI operation. The working procedures have been greatly improved by newly developed technologies. Each natural or man-made disaster presents a different set of circumstances and, as a consequence, each event results in new challenges for identification teams. Although the exact number of deceased persons to define an event as a disaster varies by jurisdiction, it is widely agreed that mass fatality incidents always exert an onerous impact on local resources. Dental DVI team leaders conduct training exercises to familiarize their team with standard operating procedures and to be better prepared for any kind of eventuality. Attempts are made during training exercises to demonstrate the complex challenges using simulations and by studying previous responses and events. Interpol and other agencies have developed standardized forms to record dental traits at the time of PM examination. Similar forms are used to translate and transcribe the original data from collected AM dental records into a common nomenclature