A importância da identificação odontolegal em casos de desastres em massa

Abstract

Forensic odontology is the specialty that within its areas of activity (civil, criminal, labor and administrative) seeks to collaborate with justice and aims to clarify the truth of the facts. Mass disasters are catastrophic and sudden events that have different origins, where they generally result in a high number of fatalities. Human identification through dental arches is widely used in cases of disasters, since dental elements have high resistance, enabling the identification of bodies in an advanced stage of destruction. This article aims to discuss the importance of forensic dentistry, analyzing, through a literature review, the relationship between the forensic odontology identification and cases of mass disasters. The dental identification method was successful in different cases, where other techniques such as fingerprint were not feasible due to the integrity of the bodies being compromised. Thus, the forensic odontology can be classified as fast, accurate and low cost, playing an irrefutable value in the identification process, especially in cases of mass disasters.