Isotope Analysis in Human Teeth as a Tool for Forensic Identification and Georeferencing

Studies of isotope analysis methods have grown in the past years, and they have been used as a tool to determine the geographic origin of human remains and to aid in the forensic identification, when DNA analyses and other standard procedures, such as dental records and fingerprints, fail or cannot be used. Isotope analyses may be useful in human identification and to determine geolocation. Isotope analyses of strontium, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and lead have been used to archeologic and forensic investigations. The dental enamel is the chosen material, for its mineral composition and for it is less prone to environmental exchange (diagenesis). It is possible to perform a bioanthropological analysis of the teeth, due to its characteristic of recording, during its formation, and permanently, physical-chemical stresses, food records related to the consumption of food and water. The teeth have high resistance to the destructive effects of putrefaction and external agents, and due to the presence of high content of hydroxyapatite present in the dental enamel, being considered the hardest tissue of the human body, material that allows an analysis of a long period of the time after death of the individual. A database search was conducted between 1996 and 2017.