Research Article Volume - 7 Issue - 5 February 2018 DOI: 10.19080/JFSCI.2018.07.555723 J Forensic Sci & Criminal Inves Copyright © All rights are reserved by Abraham Johnson A Morphological Study of Tongue and its Role in Forensics Odontology Abraham Johnson* 1 , Binita Gandhi 2 and Sandra Ernest Joseph 3 1 Institute of Forensic Science, Gujarat Forensic Sciences University, India 2 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, College of Dental Science and Research Centre, India 3 Research Associate, Lambda Therapeutic Research Limited, India Submission: February 03, 2018; Published: February 19, 2018 *Corresponding author: Abraham Johnson, Assistant Professor, Institute of Forensic Science, Gujarat Forensic Sciences University, India, Email id: J Forensic Sci & Criminal Inves 7(5): JFSCI.MS.ID.555723 (2018) 001 Introduction Human identification is one of the challenging areas that man has been confronted with. The forensic odontologist mainly deals with the identification based on recognition of unique features present in an individual’s oral structures. The tongue is very unique vital organ and its vitality is well inscribed in Traditional Chinese Medicine as “Tongue of life”. It is known to be a mirror of the oral and general health. The human tongue is encased within the oral cavity and can be easily drawn out and displayed for inspection and palpation purposes [1]. It promises to deliver uniqueness and has many properties that make it suitable for identity recognition. Every individual has unique tongue in terms of shape and surface textures. It is the only internal organ that can be stuck out of mouth for inspection, and yet it is otherwise well protected in the mouth and is difficult to forge [2]. It presents both geometric shape information and physiological texture information which are potentially useful in identity verification applications [3]. The shape of the individual tongue is constant, not withstanding its instinctive squirm and its physiological textures are invariant even as the coating of the tongue changes. Analysing the lingual morphological aspects by the alginate moulding technique, is the most reliable technique for duplicating even the minute details, with the help of which a forensic dentist can predict a person’s identity. The purpose of the study is to analyse the morphological shape and the texture of the tongue. The rationale of introducing tongue prints in forensic is because of their importance as an aid in human identification. Materials and Methods In the present study, basically a qualitative work, subjects were chosen from different places depending on the age groups. The study was conducted on 225 female and male adults between 20 to 50 years, whose tongue were examined, photographed and impression were taken for allowing creation of a database of tongue. Individuals were clinically healthy and had not been exposed to known genotoxic agents and were matched by age and sex. Individuals suffering from HIV and contagious diseases, systemic diseases like hyperthyroidism, gigantism, dwarfism, syphilis, Down syndrome, post-mortem cases etc were excluded from the study. The examination of tongue was carried out after a prior cleaning with sterile gauze piece, together with rinsing of oral cavity. The subjects were asked to protract the tongue in a relaxed position to prevent marked contraction of striated lingual muscles. The aim of the clinical examination of the tongue was to emphasize the morphological features such as shape and texture. The photographs were taken under the same environmental and lighting condition and from a predetermined distance using a professional Nikon D3300 camera. For capturing tongue images, two views of tongue were taken Abstract Forensic odontology is a branch of dentistry that mainly deals with the identification based on individual’s oral structures. The tongue is a unique structure that presents both geometric shape as well as physiological texture information that may be potentially useful in identity verification. The present research was taken over the people to study and analyse the morphological shape and texture of the tongue and demonstrate their importance as an aid in human identification. For the study, clinical examination, photographs and impressions were taken of the tongue. The undertaken study showed a qualitative result among different sex and age groups. It can be opined that the human tongue promises to deliver a level of uniqueness in shape, texture and is suitable for the use in identity recognition. Keywords : Tongue print; Biometric, Identification; Forensic odontology; Forensics