Evaluating dental student competency in forensic rugoscopy for human identification

Rugoscopy is a recognized method for human identification. Its reliability, however, may be compromised when general dentists with limited forensic training perform identification. Evaluating the role of future practitioners-dental students-is essential to address this competency gap. This study assessed the ability of dental students in recognizing and interpreting palatal rugae patterns for forensic identification. Fifty-four final-year dental students were evaluators. Forty maxillary casts (10 pre-orthodontic, 30 post-orthodontic) were used. All casts were duplicated and modified to retain only the palatal rugae area, with all teeth removed to prevent dental feature-based recognition. Participants matched each Set 1 cast to one in Set 2. The procedure was repeated after one week to determine test-retest reliability, assessed using prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK). The mean accuracy for rugoscopy-based identification was 83.06% (± 15.49%), with an average time of 1.37 (± 0.34) minutes per matching. Reliability ranged from substantial to almost perfect, showing agreement rates between 74.07% and 96.30%. This simulated exercise demonstrated that trained dental students could achieve good accuracy and reliability in identifying individuals based on palatal rugae patterns. Consequently, trained dental students may play a valuable supportive role in forensic identification tasks when specialized forensic odontologists are unavailable. Further research is recommended to establish standardized criteria to improve both accuracy and reliability.