It is not unknown for faked bite marks to reach court. A fictional example in the recent Wallace and Gromit film, A Matter of Loaf and Death, occurs when the Bake O Lite girl bites herself on the forearm, and has Gromit imprisoned for it. Gromit’s defence should have been able to show that the mark, although definitely caused by teeth, was not a dog bite and was in a position where it could have been self inflicted. »
The story goes that one Sunday morning in the 1980s an embarrassed fisherman walked into Torpoint Police Station with a bulging Tesco carrier bag. In it was a mud-encrusted human skull, which he had found while digging for bait in St John’s lake. Overlooking the fact that such digging is forbidden, a discussion took place as to whether the exhibit should be treated as lost property or evidence of a murder. »
A forensic odontologist is a dentist who specialises in interpreting dental evidence for the courts. In fact, most of the work done by these experts involves the identification of human remains; that is because, in many cases, the dental examination can give an indication of the age of the person at the time of death, which can help to reduce the number of missing persons being considered. Then, dental records of the missing persons are compared with the dental condition of the body and an identification may be confirmed. »