Ahmedabad dentist travels 37,000km to build India’s first forensic dental database | Ahmedabad News

Ahmedabad: A dentist from the city spent five years travelling 37,000km across 23 states to build something India does not yet have: a systematic map of how teeth vary across the country, and what those variations reveal about who a person is and where they come from. Dr Jayasankar P Pillai of the Government Dental College and Hospital analysed 2.23 lakh teeth to build what may be India’s most comprehensive forensic dental morphology database. The work, which earned him a PhD from the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) recently, could change how India identifies victims in disasters and crimes.In practical forensic terms, Dr Pillai’s classification method currently achieves a 36% success rate in identifying a person’s specific region of origin, and a 63% success rate in determining gender from dental samples alone. He believes both figures can be improved significantly with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and an expanded database.His work addresses a real gap. India’s dental records database is poor compared to many Western countries, which makes forensic identification difficult. Investigators sometimes have to rely on photographs of people smiling to match against dental evidence. Dr J M Vyas, vice-chancellor of NFSU and Dr Pillai’s doctoral guide, pointed out that teeth are invaluable in disaster victim identification. “Teeth can survive for decades and centuries and serve as a reliable identification marker. Efforts are underway to establish a national dental registry,” he said. The patterns Dr Pillai — a senior faculty member at the dental college’s department of oral and maxillo-facial pathology — found are striking. In several northeastern and northern states, people tend to have shovel-shaped incisors: front teeth whose backs carry ridges resembling the inside of a shovel. Move toward Gujarat and the west-south direction, and molar teeth tend to have more cusps — the raised part of a tooth — often reaching six or seven. These are not random variations. They are genetic signatures, markers of ancestry encoded in enamel and dentine.Dr Pillai said, “I have worked extensively on the forensic applications of odontology (structure of teeth) over the decades and thus decided to do a systematic profiling of teeth for India. From 2020 to 2025, I collected samples from 23 states and six different geographic zones. The total analysis included 2.23 lakh teeth for their morphological traits.” Dr Pillai, assessed each sample across 15 parameters (non-metric crown traits) using established international dental anthropology standards, including the ASUDAS/Turner-Scott system. Some findings matched international classifications precisely. “The tooth morphology depends on multiple factors, but in my study, it was focused on the genetic traits. For different gene pools, we found distinct characteristics. Several also matched with the international classification. “For example, the Cusp of Carabelli — a feature found on the maxillary first or second upper molar in Caucasian populations — appeared in parts of India as well,” he said.His samples also showed correlations with Central Asian and Western European genetic populations. “Our genetic history is thus etched in our teeth,” he said. Dr Pillai intends to “continue expanding his database”, with the aim of making it available to agencies involved in identifying unidentified persons.