Surgery
Forensic odontology expert witnesses
Listed forensic odontology expert witnesses address dental identification, age estimation and the interpretation of injuries to the mouth and teeth. Their evidence arises in criminal proceedings, inquests and disaster victim identification.
01
The evidence
What a forensic odontology expert witness is asked to determine
Forensic odontology depends on comparison between ante-mortem and post-mortem material. Radiographs, charting and treatment histories are the ante-mortem record, and the strength of any conclusion depends on how much of it survives and how it was obtained rather than on the examination alone.
- Whether the ante-mortem dental records available are sufficient to support the comparison made.
- What degree of confidence the concordant and discordant features can properly bear.
- Whether age estimation from dental development is appropriate to the individual in question.
- Whether injuries to the mouth or teeth are consistent with the mechanism alleged.
- The recognised limitations of bite mark comparison and what conclusions it cannot support.
Practitioners are listed across all four UK nations. Location can be narrowed in the register’s location listings before an instruction is made.
Claim contexts
Claims that instruct this discipline
These links describe the question forensic odontology evidence can answer. They do not prescribe the scope of an individual instruction.
Inquests
Identification and dental evidence where a death is being investigated.
View claim type → 02Criminal injuries compensation
Dental and facial injury evidence following assault.
View claim type → 03Clinical negligence claims
Dental record adequacy where identification or history is in issue.
View claim type →Search the register by the discipline used in the instruction.
See forensic odontology listingsReport routes
Reports prepared
A records review report sets out the ante-mortem material and what it supports. Where the parties raise one comparison question, a single joint expert appointment may be suitable.
A breach and causation report is used where dental record-keeping is itself criticised. The scope of each of those routes is set out on its own page.
Forensic odontology expert witness evidence
A forensic odontologist expert witness states the limits of the comparison as clearly as its conclusions, because the available record governs both.
Discipline and coverage appear in the listing; terms are settled with the practitioner. See the British Association for Forensic Odontology alongside the case material.
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