Naslov
History of forensic dentistry in Croatia

Autori
Dumančić, Jelena ; Vodanović, Marin ; Brkić, Hrvoje

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Book of abstracts of the 21st International Meeting on Forensic Medicine Alpe-Adria-Pannonia / - Sarajevo, 2012, 55-55

Skup
21st International Meeting on Forensic Medicine Alpe-Adria-Pannonia

Mjesto i datum
Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina, 30.05.2012. - 02.06.2012

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
history; forensic dentistry; Croatia

Sažetak
Historical examples of Hammurabi’s Code of Laws from 18th century BC and of identification by teeth of Lollia Paulina in ancient Rome show us that the need for forensic dentistry is as old as civilization. The forensic dental expertise in Croatia has begun in the year 1932, when the two experts witnessed at the court in case where a dentist from Zagreb was accused to have caused the death of his patient by treating pulpitis with an arsenic medicament. Seventies of the 20th century were marked out with several mass disasters. In the train accident in Zagreb in 1974 there were 152 people killed. Police and forensic pathologists performed identification of the victims. A dentist, who was a forensic expert in the field of dentistry but with no former experience in identification procedure, volunteered and took part in the identification. Dental findings, along with other characteristics, proved to be decisive in 5% of 111 identified cases. In the midair collision of a British and a Slovenian airplane near Vrbovec in 1976 there were 176 fatalities, mainly foreign passengers. The identification was conducted by British and German identification teams with the assistance of local police and forensic pathologists. All 63 victims from the British plane were identified and dental features, along with other characteristics, were decisive in 33% of the cases. From the Slovenian plane 103 of 113 victims were identified, 14% exclusively by teeth and 16% by teeth in combination with other characteristics. The next great challenge emerged during and after the 1991-1995 Croatian War of Independence - the need for identification of human remains from mass graves. Identification teams and DNA forensic laboratories have been established in Zagreb, Split and Osijek. For the first time in Croatia, a forensically trained dentist was included in the Zagreb identification team. Out of 1, 000 human remains exhumed from mass graves until July 1998, 824 were positively identified. Dental identification was achieved in 25% of the cases and in further 64% dental findings were supportive evidence. In 1996, the Chair of Forensic Dentistry was established as a part of the Department of Dental Anthropology, and Forensic Dentistry was included in the curriculum of the School of Dental Medicine in Zagreb. In 1997, Croatian Society of Forensic Odontology was constituted and became a member of the International Organization of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology (IOFOS).

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Dentalna medicina

POVEZANOST RADA