FORENSIC SCIENCE:

Abstract

Data from available literature point to an early beginning of Forensic Dentistry in Croatia relating to a post-mortem examination of a female patient after a dental procedure in the 1930s. Later on, there were several mass casualties due to collisions and airplane crashes and a railway accident at the Zagreb Main Railway Station wherein the identity of the victims was established based on dental features. Foreign experts in forensics helped identify those victims, particularly forensic dentists because this specialty was almost unknown in our region at the time. During the twenty-year period of the development of Forensic Dentistry at the University of Zagreb, the School of Dental Medicine, the city of Zagreb and Croatia have become internationally recognised on the forensic map of the world.

Introduction

Data from available literature point to an early beginning of Forensic Dentistry in Croatia relating to a post-mortem examination of a female patient after a dental procedure in the 1930s. Later on, there were several mass casualties due to collisions and airplane crashes and a railway accident at the Zagreb Main Railway Station wherein the identity of the victims was established based on dental features. Foreign experts in forensics helped identify those victims, particularly forensic dentists because this specialty was almost unknown in our region at the time. As an exception, in 1974, Professor Zvonimir Kaić, PhD, a dentist, assisted in identifying the victims of the railway crash at the Zagreb Main Station despite their scarce antemortem features.

During the Homeland War from 1991 to 1995, Croatia desperately needed experts in different scientific disciplines and knowledge in order to establish the identity of unknown human remains/war casualties. Thus, in early 1994, a National War Victims Identification Team was founded, consisting of pathologists, forensic medicine experts, radiologists, biochemists, anthropologists and, for the first time, doctors of dental medicine. A faculty staff member of the Department of Dental Anthropology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb joins the team as a full member and begins what is now a twenty-year mission to develop Forensic Dentistry at the University of Zagreb and in the Republic of Croatia. Back in 1994, apart from daily field education and making efforts to establish the identity of unknown war victims, as well as liaising between two departments - Department of Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics at the School of Medicine and the Department of Dental Anthropology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb, he also received his first international training at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, where he worked with Professor H. Monstrad, then the president of the International Organisation of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology (IOFOS). After obtaining knowledge from renowned world experts during his stay in Stockholm and by applying practical skills in the course of the identification process in Croatia, he made efforts to design a course of Forensic Dentistry which would improve the study program of Dental Medicine at the University of Zagreb. As a university teacher – Hrvoje Brkić (Assistant Professor at the time) organised a course in Forensic Dentistry, first within the postgraduate study program and in 1997 within the undergraduate study program. He also participated in the establishing the Chair of Forensic Odontology at the Department of Dental Anthropology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb.

Further development of Forensic Dentistry is based on scientific evidence. The scientific research project titled ‘Dentition Analysis of Homeland War Victims’ supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports. Owing to this project, papers relevant to the development of Forensic Dentistry and dental identification were published in the most cited forensic journal, International Journal of Legal Medicine IF 3,51. At the same time, some important acquaintances were made at numerous international gatherings which would in turn significantly affect further development of the Chair of Forensic Odontology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb. The topics from this field have been very popular among younger colleagues and are often selected for graduate theses, master and doctoral dissertations. The results of the defended doctoral and master theses are regularly published and are often cited by foreign authors. Parallel with graduate and postgraduate studies, the Chair provides lifelong education for doctors of Dental Medicine, which was well accepted by peers. In 2005, the Chair, together with the Department of Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb organised an international meeting with the participation of twenty colleagues from Scandinavian countries.

The Chair bases its regular education on the post-mortem analyses of dentitions at the Department of Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics morgue, on giving forensic evidence at courts in the Republic of Croatia and on taking part in exhuming of human remains.

The Chair has been internationally recognised due the obtained results and achievements, which can be supported by the fact that they were presented at numerous invited lectures. We would like to particularly mention FDI 2004 in New Delhi, 2007 in Hong Kong, the IOFOS congress in Florence, 2013 and the Festival of Forensic Science in Seoul, 2014. Apart from the invited lectures and citations of papers on the topic of Forensic Dentistry, the Head of the Chair is a member of the IOFOS international board, editorial board of the IJOFOS international journal and Editor-in-chief of the IOFOS bulletin.

During the twenty-year period of the development of Forensic Dentistry at the University of Zagreb, the School of Dental Medicine, the city of Zagreb and Croatia have become internationally recognised on the forensic map of the world.