THE TEETH AS A MEANS OF IDENTIFICATION. 161 



THE VALUE OF TEETH AS A MEANS OF IDENTI- 

 FICATION". 



By ALTON HOWARD THOMPSON, D.D.S., 



PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE ODONTOGRAPHY, KANSAS CITY DENTAL COLLEGE. 



HAVE been reminded by the articles in the Popular Science 

 -*- Monthly, of the neglect of the teeth as a means of identification, 

 which to me, as a practical dentist, has always seemed very remarkable. 

 No system of identification that I am aware of has ever mentioned these 

 valuable organs for this purpose, notwithstanding the facts that they 

 are so varied in features and are so durable. They are the most inde- 

 structible of all animal tissues and their value in this respect ought to 

 be appreciated, for after death, when all the other tissues have dis- 

 appeared, the teeth remain and maintain the features and peculiarities 

 that they presented in life. It is a source of wonder to the dental pro- 

 fession that the signs furnished by the teeth have been so persistently 

 overlooked in systems of identification, especially by life-insurance 

 companies. The number of signs furnished by the teeth, both of 

 natural features and of artificial operations upon them, is so varied and 

 extensive that they present an amount of valuable data that ought not 

 to be ignored. 



A simple system of record of the natural peculiarities of the teeth 

 and of the artificial operations upon them could be devised which in 

 the hands of a competent person, who would need to be an expert 

 dentist, of course, would furnish reliable and less perishable evidence 

 than the other external signs of the body. Every dentist keeps a record 

 of all the operations he performs for every patient, upon an individual 

 chart or page in a special diagram, for his own convenience and pro- 

 tection. By means of these charts, dentists have, in several instances, 

 assisted materially in the identification of the bodies of persons for 

 whom they have operated, after catastrophes, notably the charity 

 bazaar fire in Paris. A similar chart could be incorporated in the 

 examination records of life insurance companies, for instance, on 

 which the dental peculiarities could be recorded in a manner which 

 could be easily read by another expert. Even if some teeth were lost 

 or altered in the course of years, many signs would yet remain on the 

 surviving teeth, for the original form of a tooth would be the same 

 and an artificial operation could not be obliterated. Thus the size and 

 wddth of the arch; the size, shape and color of the teeth; teeth missing 



VOL. LXV. — 11. 



