Human Identification Established by the Analysis of Frontal Sinus Seen in Anteroposterior Skull Radiographs Using the Mento-Naso Technique – A Forensic Case Report

Introduction: Human identification is a challenging task, especially when the available information detected during the dental autopsy is scarce.In this context, distinctive morphological information may play a valuable role as additional and alternative identifiers.Objective: To report a case of human identification aided by the morphological analysis of the frontal sinus through anteroposterior radiographs of the skull with the mento-naso technique.Material and methods: The body of an edentulous adult male highly decomposed was referred to the local medico-legal institute for identification.The alleged relatives of the victim provided the comparative antemortem data (AM)consisting of an anteroposterior (AP) skull radiograph taken with mento-naso projection.A postmortem AP radiograph of the deceased was taken in order to reproduce the AM data and to enable a comparative procedure.Results: The morphological information of the frontal sinuses converged between AM and PM radiographs both for metric and nonmetric evidences.Conclusion: The analysis of the frontal sinus may be an additional and alternative approach for human identificationespecially for edentulous victims.