Evaluating dental student competency in forensic rugoscopy for human identification

Abstract

Rugoscopy is a recognized method for human identification. Its reliability, however, may be compromised when general dentists with limited forensic training perform identification. Evaluating the role of future practitioners—dental students—is essential to address this competency gap. This study assessed the ability of dental students in recognizing and interpreting palatal rugae patterns for forensic identification. Fifty-four final-year dental students were evaluators. Forty maxillary casts (10 pre-orthodontic, 30 post-orthodontic) were used. All casts were duplicated and modified to retain only the palatal rugae area, with all teeth removed to prevent dental feature-based recognition. Participants matched each Set 1 cast to one in Set 2. The procedure was repeated after one week to determine test-retest reliability, assessed using prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK). The mean accuracy for rugoscopy-based identification was 83.06% (± 15.49%), with an average time of 1.37 (± 0.34) minutes per matching. Reliability ranged from substantial to almost perfect, showing agreement rates between 74.07% and 96.30%. This simulated exercise demonstrated that trained dental students could achieve good accuracy and reliability in identifying individuals based on palatal rugae patterns. Consequently, trained dental students may play a valuable supportive role in forensic identification tasks when specialized forensic odontologists are unavailable. Further research is recommended to establish standardized criteria to improve both accuracy and reliability.