The use of panoramic X-ray from dental imaging techniques for identification in human-related and natural disasters

Dental biometrics plays a crucial role in the identification of victims of natural and human related disasters. The permanence of dental records is seen as a better option than the traditional biometric techniques of fingerprints, face and iris. Many studies have shown that the use of dental records for human identification is faster, more reliable and cheaper than DNA analysis. After the pelvis, the skull is the most reliably used skeletal part for gender determination, showing high dimorphism and having a reliability of 92%. The mandible is the strongest and largest bone of the skull and therefore plays a major role in gender determination. The parameters measured in the ramus region are: Minimum ramus width, maximum ramus width, projective ramus height, maximum ramus height, condyle height, coronoid height, bigonial width, gonial angle. Panoramic radiographs, if available as AM, are used for human identification, digital registration, database searching and database creation. In this study, 100 male and 100 female panoramic radiographs were evaluated by three different investigators for all parameters. In the study, right and left ramus width, right and left condyl height and bigonial width values were analyzed separately and it was analyzed whether they could be used as a diagnostic test for the gender status obtained. For this purpose, firstly, a logistic model was established for two groups as male and female. The probabilities obtained from the model established with one independent variable were calculated, and the diagnostic test was performed, and ROC analysis was performed on these probabilities, and the cut-off point was determined according to the Youden index. Sensitivity and selectivity values were calculated based on the cut-off point. Comparisons of each researcher were found to be compatible and statistically significant, and their applicability in forensic identification and gender determination was demonstrated.