Forensic Dentistry is the specialty with the goal of investigating psychological, physical, chemical and biological phenomena that can reach human beings (alive, dead or body fragments), comprehending aspects of human identification; criminal, civil, labor and administrative forensic investigation; forensic tanatology; legal documents; forensic traumatology; image (x-ray, tomography) examinations; saliva analysis; and other aspects involving a multidisciplinary team.
Human identification is one of the major fields of study and research in forensic science because it deals with the human body and aims at establishing human identity. The revolution caused in 1953 by Watson and Crick43 (1953), who discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, which is responsible for the genetic inheritance of human beings, led to important changes in nearly all fields of science. This discovery was the basis for the development of techniques that allow characterizing each person s individuality based on the DNA sequence. Three decades later, Jeffreys, et al.15 (1985) created radioactive molecular probes that could recognize highly variable regions of DNA and thus determine the specific patterns of each individual, which were named DNA fingerprints. The currently performed DNA profile tests are totally reliable, being accepted as legal proofs in courts, such as for investigation of paternity and human identification26. Several biological materials may be employed for isolation of DNA and accomplishment of laboratory tests for human identification, including bone tissue, hair bulb, biopsy sample, saliva, blood and other body tissues. It is possible to obtain DNA from virtually all human body tissues, only with variations in the quantity and quality of the DNA extracted from each tissue.