Results of the 4th ABFO Bitemark Workshop—1999

Abstract

Thirty-two certified diplomates of the American Board of Forensic odontology (ABFO) participated in a study of the accuracy of bitemark analysis. Examiner experience as board-certified odontologists ranged from 2 to 22 years. Examiners were given sets of photographs (a cast in 1 case) of 4 bitemark cases and asked to report their certainty that each case was truly a bitemark and the apparent value of the case as forensic evidence. Participants also received 7 occluding sets of dental casts, 1 correct dentition for each case and three unrelated to any of the cases, and asked to rate how certain they were that each set of teeth had made each bitemark. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis resulted in an accuracy score of 0.86 (95% CI=0.82–0.91). Youden’s index was used to determine a cutoff point for determining an accuracy score for each case. Accuracy scores were significantly correlated with bitemark certainty and forensic value ( P<0.001 in both cases) but not with examiner experience ( P=0.958). The use of individual ROC analysis with weighted Youden’s index to calibrate individual accuracy was also demonstrated.