DNA analysis of root canal-filled teeth

Corpses examined in legal medicine exhibit a variety of post-mortem changes. It is not rare to carry out individual identifications of highly decomposed or skeletonized corpses by DNA analysis; hard tissues such as teeth [1 –3] or bone [4] are used as samples for the identifications. Teeth are extremely resistant to physicochemical influences. The prototype is maintained with the occurrence of very few post-mortem changes, thus enabling its frequent use in forensics. Furthermore, the dental pulp is surrounded by hard tissues such as enamel, dentine, and cementum, and is therefore well preserved and most suitable for genetic analyses [5–7].
Source: Legal Medicine - Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Source Type: research