Association of Cadaveric Factors with the Degree and Region of Discoloration on Pink Teeth: An Approach to Serial Cases

Abstract

The pink teeth phenomenon has been observed in cases of hanging and drowning, but the relationship of this phenomenon with cause of death has not been positively affirmed. To date, teeth with a pinkish tone have been simply regarded as pink teeth. However, we speculated that classification and evaluation of the degree and region of discoloration with reference to how color is classified in prosthodontic dentistry may produce novel findings regarding the pink teeth phenomenon. Therefore, we classified the degree and region of discoloration on teeth into three grades and attempted to evaluate the relationship of grade with various cadaveric factors in 68 cases of pink teeth. The degree and region scores of discoloration did not show significant differences in terms of sex, age, cause of death, and place of discovery, but the degree of discoloration in terms of time after death showed a significant increase at 6 months (p < 0.01) and a significant decrease after 7 months (p < 0.05), while the region score also showed a significant decrease after 7 months. Furthermore, in 18 cases of drowning, the degree of discoloration significantly increased with time after death (p < 0.01). Thus, it was clarified that time after death was most strongly related to the pink teeth phenomenon, suggesting cadaveric decomposition may affect the occurrence of pink teeth. Further investigation in cases of early postmortem changes would be required to determine whether pink teeth in putrefactive cadavers have utility in medico–legal assessments.