Are dental charts (odontograms) obsolete records for comparative dental analysis?

This communication aims to briefly present the importance of dental charts (odontograms) in the comparative dental analysis for human identification considering the time elapsed between its introduction and the current use in times of rapid technological changes in Dentistry. Future discussions about the rank of importance amongst the different types of dental records are necessary

A career in Forensic Odontology:it is not just about teeth

Throughout the world, forensic odontology academic programmes have been designed and permeate discussions about international or local standard operational protocols, principles or guidelines requiring current technical and scientific knowledge. The heterogeneous groups of students who aim to pursue this career might have high educational and occupational aspirations that will be confronted with the labour markets. In this report, the authors briefly present aspects of the education and training that comprise the choice of a career in forensic odontology nowadays. In conclusion, the individual who opts for forensic odontology as a career must be prepared to find the confidence and resilience to practice professional skills in a unique and challenging field to comply with the society’s expectation

Archetypal image of the teeth – Stimulating certain understandings for the appreciation of the biting wit

There are meanings which were [are] attributed to the archetypal image of the tooth, honouring how dynamic operations of the biological (chemical and physiological characteristics), emotional, and behavioural aspects of its existence and organic manifestation impacted the understandings that some ethnic communities, ingrained in their own ecological, geographic, religious, historic, and cultural factors, built and developed through their approximations to teeth. That can be possibly seen as scaffolding the innumerable, stable and/or modified symbolic representations that constitute the emerging narratives modern humans manifest and exchange when having the tooth as the object of their current experience and enquiry. It discusses individual, collective, and transpersonal states of feeling and reasoning that analyse the possession and the observation of teeth and the phenomena related to their utility, appearance, state of wear, and identitarian judgements that can be drawn from their materiality. Hence, this literature review discusses how the practise and/or attribution of rituals for modification and/or mutilation of teeth, socioeconomic expectations, cultural meanings, self-identity information, dietary styles, and crimes that surround the human dentition have occurred and insist to occur throughout the conscious and/or unconscious transmission of ideas and ideals that are attached to the image of the tooth, revealing a certain common yet transformed knowledge between traditional and modern societies

Are dental charts (odontograms) obsolete records for comparative dental analysis?

This communication aims to briefly present the importance of dental charts (odontograms) in the comparative dental analysis for human identification considering the time elapsed between its introduction and the current use in times of rapid technological changes in Dentistry. Future discussions about the rank of importance amongst the different types of dental records are necessary