Forensic Facial Reconstruction: Review and Analysis of Scientific Research in Brazil

Abstract

Forensic Facial Reconstruction (FFR) refers to any process that aims to recover the morphology of a face at the moment before death, from the observation of a skull. It’s a recognition method that allows direct investigations for primary methods of human identification. The literature on this topic is very extensive, however, there are only few national studies, even in Forensic Dentistry. The present study aimed to review and to analyze the Brazilian research publications about FFR. On April 13, a search for references was carried on Bibliografia Brasileira de Odontologia (BBO) and Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS) electronic full-text databases with the terms “forensic facial reconstruction”, “forensic facial reconstitution” and “forensic facial approximation”. A total of 10 national references was found, between 2000 and 2012: 2 articles, 3 dissertations and 5 theses. Most of the references belong to the field of dentistry and the topic that was most studied is facial soft tissue thickness of Brazilian subjects, totaling 30% of the publications. About 50% of the studies have been made since 2010, which shows that the national studies are recent. We conclude that the Brazilian literature on FFR has been growing, but there is still a lack of research. The preparation of theses and dissertations is valuable for the development of Forensic Sciences and Forensic Dentistry.