An Overview of the Post-Mortem Interval and its Estimation from Dental Tissues

Abstract

The forensic odontology is one of the prominent and emerging branches in forensic sciences since decades. An important objective of post-mortem examination is to connect an accused to that moment of time to prove his guilt or innocence. The use of dental tissues and their role for the estimation of post-mortem interval (PMI) is evolving in the field of forensic medicine. The present review was focused on postmortem changes, the importance of PMI estimation and the various dental tissues used in PMI estimation. It was observed that the tissues like dental pulp, odontoblasts, enamel, dentin, periodontal ligament (PDL), and mitochondrial/nuclear DNA from coronal, radicular & cementum, and pulpal RNA, are an emerging aid in the estimation of PMI. These few studies have demonstrated the importance of dental tissues in the estimation of PMI with various techniques; most of them were related to dental pulpal tissue. Further, more studies are required to authenticate the role of other dental tissues to predict the PMI at an early stage with cost-effective and most convenient techniques.