Morphological analysis of frontal sinuses registered in an occlusal film by intraoral radiographic device – A case report

Abstract

Frontal sinuses have a distinctive morphology that may support human identifications in the routine of medico-legal institutes. On the other hand, forensic facilities in developing countries may be limited in radiologic technology. This study aims to report a case of human identification in which the frontal sinuses were assessed by means of an adapted radiographic technique. An unknown charred victim of car crash was referred to the local medico-legal institute for human identification. The antemortem (AM) data provided by the alleged relatives of the victims consisted of a posteroanterior (PA) radiograph of the skull. In order to reproduce the AM radiograph for comparison of the frontal sinuses, and adapted technique was performed by positioning an occlusal film on the anterior surface of the frontal bone of the victim to and the radiographic cylinder on the posterior surface of the skull. A PM radiograph of the frontal sinuses was obtained in PA projection. A qualitative radiographic analysis of the morphology of the frontal sinuses revealed the convergence of AM and PM evidences and contributed to the human identification process.