Identification of Population Affinity Using Dental Traits: A Narrative Review in Forensic Odontology

TL;DR

This paper reviews how dental traits are used in forensic odontology to estimate population affinity, highlighting their usefulness and limitations in determining ancestry or ethnicity.

Contribution

The paper advocates for replacing traditional terms like race with 'population affinity' and suggests improved methods for more accurate forensic identification.

Findings

Dental traits vary across populations and can be useful for estimating ancestry when combined with other evidence.

Training observers with additional sources and skills improves the accuracy of ancestry estimation.

The observational method risks oversimplifying contextual factors, requiring a broader social context evaluation.

Abstract

Forensic odontology utilizes dental morphology to estimate population affinity in medico‐legal cases. This review examines the role of dental traits in human identification, emphasizing their limitations in conclusively estimating ancestry or ethnicity.

A comprehensive search was conducted across databases such as PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Web of Science using key terms ‐ race, ancestry, ethnicity, population affinity and forensic odontology. Literature studying race/ancestry (older studies) and population affinity (newer studies) was reviewed.

All dental features are characterized by a certain degree of variation across human populations. On one hand, tooth characteristics may seem useful for identifying ancestry and ethnicity. Yet, combining dental traits with other evidence may improve ancestry estimation. Training observers with additional sources and practical skills improves accuracy and produces more reliable results. The observational method, while systematic, risks oversimplifying contextual factors. However, in forensic odontology, the broader social context of this approach must be considered, as it evaluates whether race is a biological notion.

Traditional terms like race and ancestry should be replaced by population affinity. Future recommendations include developing improved methods to enhance result accuracy.