Forensic Odontology in Mass Disaster Victim Identification: A Review of Applicable Methods for Nigerian Contexts

Mass disaster events, including building collapses, transportation accidents, and communal conflicts, generate forensic identification challenges that frequently exceed the capacity of conventional pathological examination. This study reviews the principles and methods of forensic odontology and assesses their applicability within the Nigerian forensic investigation context, drawing on documented mass disaster events across the country between 2018 and 2023. A systematic literature review was conducted, supplemented by semi-structured interviews with eight forensic pathologists and dental practitioners in Abuja and Lagos. The study evaluates dental identification techniques including ante-mortem and post-mortem dental record comparison, rugoscopy, and bite mark analysis, assessing the feasibility of each method given current institutional and infrastructural realities in Nigeria. Findings indicate that dental identification is rarely employed in Nigerian mass disaster responses due to the absence of ante-mortem dental record systems, limited forensic odontological training among dentists, and inadequate inter-agency coordination. The review also identifies opportunities to leverage mobile dental radiography units and digital record management systems to improve identification capacity. The study recommends the development of a national dental identification protocol and the inclusion of forensic odontology modules in undergraduate dental curricula in Nigerian universities. Keywords: forensic odontology, mass disaster, victim identification, Nigeria, dental records.