Intercanine distance and bite marks analysis using metric method

Abstract

Aim: Reliability of intercanine distance while analysing bite mark using metric method. Materials and methods: Impressions of both, maxillary as well as mandibular arches of 50 consenting volunteers were taken and dentition casts were prepared. The bite mark impression and the dentine measurements were compared using Microsoft Excel Software. Each parameter of the bite mark is compared to the similar parameter in the dentition of the volunteer. The relation of all parameters with intercanine distance was observed. Results: The findings resulted in 14 true positives, and considering only intercanine distance as parameter resulted in only 6 true positives. Observations showed a significant error of 72 and 88% respectively. Conclusion: We conclude that using intercanine distance as a parameter for bite mark analysis is an unreliable method.

Keywords

• Bite marks
• Intercanine distance
• Dental cast method
• Metric analysis
• Sexual crimes