Dentists answer Bali emergency

A casualty is loaded onto a C130 aircraft at Denpasar airport Bali.

Australian Defence Force dentists have assisted with dental identification and DNA analysis of victims of the Bali bombing disaster.

Due to the severity of injuries sustained and the effects of the subsequent fire, dental identification and DNA analysis played a major role in the identification of many victims.

Dental identification is the quickest and most efficient of the three stand alone methods accepted by a coroner (the others being fingerprints and DNA analysis) and the only one producing immediate results.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) teams required augmentation to handle such a large disaster and the call went out for dentists trained in forensic odontology.

Six of the dentists who subsequently arrived in Bali were from the military and another had previous military service. All had extensive DVI experience but few involving a disaster of such magnitude.

Aided by three ADF interpreters and numerous local volunteers, the AFP DVI teams established control and the grisly task of examining the bodies commenced.

The DVI process is a very structured one that starts with the police recording the possessions and external appearance of the body. Fingerprints are taken whenever possible, then the pathologists conduct a post mortem examination. Samples are also taken for DNA analysis.

Finally the dentists conduct a dental examination, including radiographs and photographs for possible matches with the antemortem dental records of the deceased.

Teams of police and dentists back in Australia began collecting and summarising the dental records of the missing persons. Teams in Bali also collated records.

After the dental examinations were completed, the tedious task of comparing the numerous records to find a match began. As with all other stages of the process, attention to detail is critical since a positive match will enable the body to be released to their family for burial and so progress the grieving process.

At the time of writing, approximately 60 per cent of positive identifications had been by dental means and this was expected to increase as further dental records arrived from Australia.

The Black Hawk disaster showed the ADF the importance of training its dental officers in forensic dentistry techniques. Having this pool of expertise paid dividends for the Australian community and allowed the ADF to serve its country in times of adversity.

• By LTCOL Stephen Curry and LSCISSM Rachel Irving

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