Archives of Dental Research 2023;13(1):10–14 Content available at: https://www.ipinnovative.com/open-access-journals Archives of Dental Research Journal homepage: https://www.adr.org.in/ Review Article Tongue prints- Unique as well as potential forensic tool for biometric authentication Tanha Khan 1, *, Arpan Manna 1 , Ahmed Mohammed Saaduddin Sapri 2 , Taseer Bashir 3 , Naeem Ahmad 4 1 Dept. of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Teerthanker Mahaveer Dental College and Research Centre, Bagadpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 2 Dept. of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery, Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 3 Dept. of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, India 4 Dept. of Dentristry, Al Abeer Medical Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 18-04-2023 Accepted 19-06-2023 Available online 31-07-2023 Keywords: Tongue prints Forensic tool Sexual dimorphism ABSTRACT Forensic odontology proves to be an important branch of science when it comes to solve various criminal cases as well as in person identification by providing dental expertise in the court of law so that proper justice can be delivered. Tongue is an important vital organ of human body which is protected from outer environment as it is well encased within the oral cavity. Tongue has very unique features which differs from individual to individual, even in identical twins. For this reason, tongue prints can be used nowadays as a method of biometric authentication in Forensic Odontology. It also aids in identification of person as tongue exhibits sexual dimorphism. As a result of all this, tongue prints has emerged as a promising forensic tool nowadays. This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. For reprints contact: reprint@ipinnovative.com 1. Introduction Forensic odontology is a branch of science dealing with multidisciplinary approaches for the issues of law by providing dental expertise and thereby solving various cases. This branch helps to provide many information regarding gender determination as well as age determination, person identification in cases of disaster victim identification and many more. Tongue is a vital organ which has a number of actions which includes speech, taste sensation, formation of bolus. It has distinctive characteristics that vary from person to person and even amongst identical twins. Every person has a distinct colour, shape, and surface characteristics that can be used to identify them. Personal identity by biometric * Corresponding author. E-mail address: arpanmanna97@gmail.com (T. Khan). authentication has grown in popularity in recent years. The need for security when dealing with financial information, transactions, etc. has sparked study in the area of biometrics. To identify the person in biometric authentication, the input sample is compared to a sample template. 1,2 Various biometric systems have emerged in various forms such as voice recognition, facial recognition, iris scanning, skin colour, signature verification, and fingerprint. Recently, interest in tongue prints as a biometric tool has increased. The look for the use of the tongue print as a means of biometric authentication resulted from the development of new personal identification methods. Tongue characteristics that display sexual dimorphism help to identify a person and hence the tongue is becoming an innovative biometric tool. 3 Tongue prints guarantee individuality and feature a variety of qualities that make them useful for https://doi.org/10.18231/j.adr.2023.002 2277-3401/© 2023 Innovative Publication, All rights reserved. 10