Introduction

Forensic odontology is that aspect of dental sciences which involves handling of forensic evidence for presenting it in the court of law. Teeth has the potential to endure post-mortem degradation and extreme changes in encompassing atmospheric temperature and pressure better than most human tissues. Dental pulp being a quality source genomic DNA of high molecular weight; it can therefore be used for identification from even those incinerated or carbonized remains of victim (Sweet and Sweet, 1995).

Teeth can survive a temperature of 16000C without any appreciable loss in the microstructure of the tooth thus making them a useful tool for identification (Rothwell, 2001). In disasters like aircraft wrecks, natural calamities forensic odontology is often of great succour by establishing the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI). In Paris, in the after-effects of the hearth of the bazaar de la Charité in 1897 forensic identification by dentition for mases was done for the first time (Taylor, 2009).

Severely incinerated bodies of both Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were identified by the Russian troops on May 1, 1945, primarily on the basis of based dental evidence which were retrieved by Dr. H J Blaschke who was Hitler's dentist. Uniqueness of the frontal sinuses was thus established through his records (Bruce-Chwatt, 2010). For the integrity of a classified operation there might be some occasions where there would be no indication of recognising the fallen soldier. Age estimation through dental evidence would narrow down the search in such cases (Willems et al., 2002).

The sole purpose for writing this review was to establish the fact that Forensic Odontology is an inseparable aspect of Indian Military. Although the arena is not explored to its complete magnitude yet which amounts to the bare literature available on the topic, forensic odontology if exploited to its maximal limit would demonstrate to be of great virtue. It would also help in early identification of victim or can be an aid to the conventional identification methods. The methods described further in the article such as Orthopantomogram, Impression of dental arches will provide an ante mortem database for the serving or retired personnel and extraction of pulp from the tooth of the deceased will provide the genetic makeup of the casualty and thus form the post mortem database.