The role of the dentist in identifying missing and unidentified persons.

ABSTRACT

The longer a person is missing, the more profound the need for dental records becomes. In 2013, there were >84,000 missing persons and >8,000 unidentified persons registered in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. Tens of thousands of families are left without answers or closure, always maintaining hope that their relative will be located. Law enforcement needs the cooperation of organized dentistry to procure dental records, translate their findings, and upload them into the NCIC database for cross-matching with unidentified person records created by medical examiner and coroner departments across the United States and Canada.