Forensic Science International (01-2007).pdf

Forensic Science International is an international journal publishing original contributions in the many different scientiﬁc disciplines pertaining to the

forensic sciences. Fields include forensic pathology and histochemistry, chemistry, biochemistry and toxicology (including drugs, alcohol, etc.), biology

(including the identiﬁcation of hairs and ﬁbres), serology, odontology, psychiatry, anthropology, the physical sciences, ﬁrearms, and document examination,

as well as investigations of value to public health in its broadest sense, and the important marginal area where science and medicine interact with the law.

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

P. Saukko – (for: Experimental Forensic Pathology, Trafﬁc

Medicine and subjects not listed elsewhere) Department of Forensic

Medicine, University of Turku, SF-20520 Turku, Finland

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ASSOCIATE EDITORS

A. Carracedo – ( for: Forensic Genetics )

Instituto de Medicina Legal,

Facultad de Medicina,

15705 Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain

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P. Margot – ( for: Questioned Documents, with the assistance of A. Khanmy

and W. Mazzela; and for Physical Science: ballistics, tool marks, contact

traces, drugs analysis, fingerprints and identification, etc.)

Ecole de Sciences Criminelles (ESC),

UNIL-BCH, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

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Department of Forensic Medicine,

Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine

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Southbank 3006, Victoria, Australia

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G. Willems – ( for: Odontology )

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, School of Dentistry, Oral Pathology and

Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Departments of Orthodontics and Forensic

Odontology, Kapucijnenvoer 7, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium

Tel: +32 16 33.24.59;

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Cristina Cattaneo – ( Anthropology and Osteology )

Instituto de Medicina Legal, Universita degli Studi

Via Mangiagalli 37, 20133 Milano, Italy

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M.S. Pollanen (Toronto, Canada)

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K. Püschel (Hamburg, Germany)

G. Quatrehomme (Nice, France)

J. Robertson (Canberra, Australia)

P.M. Schneider (Cologne, Germany)

S. Seta (Tokyo, Japan)

J. Simonsen (Copenhagen, Denmark)

P. Sótonyi (Budapest, Hungary)

M. Steyn (Pretoria, South Africa)

F. Tagliaro (Verona, Italy)

T. Takatori (Chiba, Japan)

S. Tsunenari (Kumamoto, Japan)

D.N. Vieira (Coimbra, Portugal)

X. Xu (Shantou, People’s Republic of China)

J. Zhu (Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China)

Forensic Science International 165 (2007) 1–9

www.elsevier.com/locate/forsciint

Review

Establishing identity using cheiloscopy and palatoscopy

Inˆs Morais Caldas a , * , Teresa Magalh˜es b , c , d , Am´rico Afonso a

a Dentistry Faculty of Oporto University, Portugal

Medical Faculty of Oporto University, Portugal

Abel Salazar Biomedical Institute of Oporto University, Portugal

Medical Law National Institute (Oporto Delegation), Portugal

Received 22 December 2005; received in revised form 3 April 2006; accepted 21 April 2006

Available online 24 May 2006

Abstract

Establishing a person’s identity can be a very difﬁcult process. Dental, ﬁngerprint and DNA comparisons are probably the most common

techniques used in this context, allowing fast and secure identiﬁcation processes. However, since they cannot always be used, sometimes it is

necessary to apply different and less known techniques. In this paper, the authors describe two unusual techniques: cheiloscopy and palatoscopy. It

is known that due to their special features, both lip grooves and palatal rugae can be used successfully in human identiﬁcation. This paper reviews

the techniques of cheiloscopy and palatoscopy, and describes the different classiﬁcations and their advantages and limitations.

Keywords: Cheiloscopy; Lip prints; Palatoscopy; Palatal rugae; Human identiﬁcation

Contents

1. Introduction . .................................................................................. 2

2. Cheiloscopy . .................................................................................. 2

2.1. Historical review . .......................................................................... 2

2.2. Anatomical aspects .......................................................................... 2

2.3. Lip print classiﬁcation. . . ..................................................................... 2

2.3.1. Mart ´ n Santos classiﬁcation [25] .......................................................... 2

2.3.2. Suzuki and Tsuchihashi classiﬁcation [27] .................................................... 3

2.3.3. Renaud classiﬁcation [26] ............................................................... 3

2.3.4. Afchar-Bayat classiﬁcation [31] ........................................................... 3

2.3.5. Jos ´ Maria Dominguez classiﬁcation [32] .................................................... 3

2.4. Analysing and recording lip prints . . ............................................................. 3

2.5. Problems with cheiloscopy . . . ................................................................. 4

3. Palatoscopy . . .................................................................................. 4

3.1. Historical review . .......................................................................... 4

3.2. Anatomical aspects .......................................................................... 4

3.3. Palatal rugae classiﬁcations . . . ................................................................. 5

3.3.1. Carrea classiﬁcation [47] ................................................................ 5

3.3.2. Martins dos Santos classiﬁcation [47,48] ..................................................... 5

3.3.3. L´ pez de L´on classiﬁcation [20] .......................................................... 6

3.3.4. da Silva classiﬁcation [20,23] ............................................................ 6

3.3.5. Trobo classiﬁcation [20] ................................................................ 6

3.3.6. Basauri classiﬁcation [20,23] ............................................................. 6

* Corresponding author at: Faculdade de Medicina Dent ´ ria do Porto, Rua Dr. Manuel Pereira da Silva, 4200-393 Porto, Portugal. Tel.: +351 965171033.

E-mail address: inesmcaldas@netcabo.pt (I.M. Caldas).

doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.04.010

I.M. Caldas et al. / Forensic Science International 165 (2007) 1–9

3.3.7. Cormoy System [20,23] ................................................................ 6

3.3.8. Correia classiﬁcation [23] ............................................................... 6

3.4. Analysing and recording palatal rugae . ........................................................... 7

3.5. Problems with palatoscopy . ................................................................... 7

4. Conclusions.................................................................................... 7

Acknowledgement . . . ............................................................................ 7

References .................................................................................... 7

1. Introduction

singularity [26] . Two years later, Suzuki and Tsuchihashi

developed another study which resulted in a new classiﬁcation

for lip prints. This study, made over a long period of time,

enabled the authors to conﬁrm not only lip print singularity, but

also lip response to trauma; in fact, these authors observed that

after healing, the lip pattern was equal to that before the injury

occurred [21,27] .

In forensic identiﬁcation, the mouth allows for a myriad of

possibilities. Due to the distinctive features of teeth, dental

identiﬁcation is one of the most popular ways to positively

identify somebody. In fact, teeth are known to have singular

features and possess extraordinary resistance to extreme

conditions [1–11] . These properties enable fast and secure

identiﬁcation processes [2,6–14] .

Nevertheless, in some particular circumstances, often related

to a criminal investigation, there can be other data, which are

important to the process of human identiﬁcation. Some of those

data result from soft oral and perioral tissues prints [2,15,16] .In

fact, lips, as well as the hard palate, are known to have features

that can lead to a person’s identiﬁcation. The study of lip prints is

known as cheiloscopy; the study of hard palate anatomy to

establish someones identity is called palatoscopy.

2.2. Anatomical aspects

Lips are two, highly sensitive mobile folds, composed of

skin, muscle, glands and mucous membrane. They surround the

oral oriﬁce and form the anterior boundary of the oral cavity.

Anatomically, whether covered with skin or mucosa, the

surface that forms the oral sphincter is the lip area. There is an

upper lip (from under the nose and extending laterally toward

the cheek from the nasolabial sulcus) and a lower lip (bound

inferiorly by a prominent groove, the labiomental sulcus); the

two lips are joined at the corners of the mouth – the comissures

– and separated by the buccal fend [23,28,29] .

There are two different kinds of lip covering—skin or

mucosa. When the two meet, a white wavy line is formed – the

labial cord – which is quite prominent in negroes. Where

identiﬁcation is concerned, the mucosal area holds the most

interest. This area, also called Klein’s zone [20] , is covered with

wrinkles and grooves that form a characteristic pattern—the lip

print [17] .

However, this is not the only area that deserves careful study.

In fact, in cheiloscopy, one should also analyse lip anatomy,

considering their thickness and the position. The lips can be

horizontal, elevated or depressed [15,20] and, according to their

thickness, it is possible to identify the following four groups:

(1) thin lips (common in the European Caucasian); (2) medium

lips (from 8 to 10 mm, are the most common type); (3) thick or

very thick lips (usually having an inversion of the lip cord and

are usually seen in negroes); (4) mix lips (usually seen in

Orientals) [15,20,30] .

2. Cheiloscopy

Cheiloscopy, (from the Greek words cheilos, lips, e skopein,

see [15] ) is the name given to the lip print studies [14,17–19] .

The importance of cheiloscopy is linked to the fact that lip

prints are unique to one person, except in monozygotic twins

[10,14,17,20–22] . Like ﬁngerprints and palatal rugae, lip

grooves are permanent and unchangeable [14,15,17,20] .Itis

possible to identify lip patterns as early as the sixth week of in

uterine life [15] . From that moment on, lip groove patterns

rarely change, resisting many afﬂictions, such as herpetic

lesions. In fact, only those pathologies that damage the lip

subtract like burns, seem to rule out cheiloscopic study [15] .

2.1. Historical review

This biological feature was ﬁrst described by Fisher in 1902

[17] , however, it was only in 1930, that Diou de Lille developed

some studies which led to lip print use in criminology [23] .In

1932, Edmond Locard, one of France’s greatest criminologists,

acknowledged the importance of cheiloscopy [23] . In 1950, Le

Moyer Snyder, in his book ‘‘Homicide Investigation’’, men-

tioned the possibility of using lip prints in the matter of human

identiﬁcation [24] . Some time later, Santos, in 1960, suggested

that the ﬁssures and the criss-cross lines in the lips could be

divided into different groups (simple and compound), and each

group could be further divided into eight subtypes [25] .

Renaud, in 1972, studied 4000 lip prints and conﬁrmed the

singularity of each one, supporting the idea of lip print

2.3. Lip print classiﬁcation

2.3.1. Mart ´ n Santos classiﬁcation [25]

This author divides the lip grooves into two groups: (1)

simple, when they are formed only by one element; this element

can be a straight line (R-1), a curve (C-2), an angular form (A-3)

or sinusoidal (S-4); (2) compound, when they are formed by

several elements; in this case, they can be bifurcated (B-5),

trifurcated (T-6) or anomalous (An-7).

I.M. Caldas et al. / Forensic Science International 165 (2007) 1–9

Table 1

Suzuki and Tsuchihashi lip prints classiﬁcation

Classiﬁcation

Groove type

Table 3

Afchar-Bayat lip prints classiﬁcation

Classiﬁcation

Groove type

Type I

Complete vertical

Vertical and straight grooves,

covering the whole lip

Type I 0

Incomplete vertical

Type II

Branched

Like the former, but not covering

the whole lip

Type III

Intersected

Type IV

Reticular pattern

Straight branched grooves

Type V

Irregular

Angulated branched grooves

Converging grooves

Reticular pattern grooves

2.3.2. Suzuki and Tsuchihashi classiﬁcation [27]

These authors considered six different types of grooves, as

seen in Table 1 .

Other grooves

2.3.3. Renaud classiﬁcation [26]

This is, probably, the most complete classiﬁcation. The lips

are studied in halves (left and right), and every groove,

according to its form, has a number ( Table 2 ). A formula is then

elaborated using capital letters to describe the upper lip left (L)

and right (R) sides, and small letters to classify each groove; in

the lower lip, it is done the other way around, using capital

letters to classify the grooves, and small letters to separate left

from right sides.

found on clothes or other objects, such as glasses, cups or even

cigarettes’ buts [34,35,37] . Sometimes lip prints will be seen as

lipstick smears [38] . Lipsticks are complex substances, which

have in their constitution, several compounds, oils or waxes

[34,38] . The colour of the lipsticks is due to organic inks and

inorganic pigments [38] .

However, all lip prints are important, even the ones that are not

visible [34,39] . In fact, this complex process is not restricted to

studying visible prints, but also the latent ones [34] . The

vermillion border of the lips has minor salivary and sebaceous

glands which, together with the moisturising done by the tongue,

leads to the possibility of the existence of latent lip prints [33] .

When searching for lip prints, one must always consider that not

all lipstick smears are coloured; in fact, in recent years the

cosmetic industry has been developing new lipsticks which do

not leave a visible smear or mark when they come in contact with

different items—these are called persistent lipsticks [40] .

The identiﬁcation of latent print evidence is often considered

the key in solving a crime [41] . A group of Spanish

investigators has studied these latent lip prints and concluded

that they could be studied in a similar way to ﬁngerprints, using

similar techniques [19,35,37–40] . In fact, even when located on

‘‘difﬁcult’’ surfaces (such as porous or multicoloured ones),

latent prints can be easily seen using ﬂuorescent dyes [34,39] .

When dealing with lip prints from persistent lipsticks, one must

always remember that persistent lipsticks have minimal oil

content and therefore, their development using conventional

powders might not be effective. Lysochromes should then be

used since they have the ability to dye fatty acids and are very

effective when used on long-lasting lipstick prints, even on

porous surfaces [36] .

In this manner, latent lip prints should always be considered

when processing a crime scene, even if there are no traces of

lipstick.

Processing lip prints depends on the anatomical, morpho-

logical and histological tissue features of lips [20] . Observation

should be the ﬁrst step when processing lip prints [8] , using

white and ultraviolet light sources [15,42] . Photographs should

be made prior to any processing in order to protect the evidence

[42] . Photographing latent prints is a complex process that

obeys a strict methodology. According to FBI guidelines [42] ,

latent prints should be photographed individually with an

identiﬁcation label and a scale; each step in the processing

sequence must be photographed.

2.3.4. Afchar-Bayat classiﬁcation [31]

This classiﬁcation, dated from 1979, is based on a six-type

groove organization, as seen in Table 3 .

2.3.5. Jos´ Maria Dominguez classiﬁcation [32]

This is a classiﬁcation based on the one made by Suzuki and

Tsuchihashi. In the grooves classiﬁed as Type II of Suzuki and

Tsuchihashi, the author and his co-workers observed, with

some frequency, a slight variation: they observed that branched

grooves often divided upwards in the upper lip, and downwards

in the lower, as reported by Suzuki and Tsuchihashi; but they

also realise that some grooves, the so called II 0

type branched

the other way around.

2.4. Analysing and recording lip prints

Searching for prints in a crime scene investigation can be

very important in establishing the true nature of the facts

[18,33–36] . Lip prints can link a subject to a speciﬁc location if

Table 2

Renaud lip prints classiﬁcation

Classiﬁcation

Groove type

Complete vertical

Incomplete vertical

Complete bifurcated

Incomplete bifurcated

Compete branched

Incomplete branched

Reticular pattern

X or coma form

Horizontal

Others forms (ellipse, triangle)

I.M. Caldas et al. / Forensic Science International 165 (2007) 1–9

If lipstick is present, the lipstick itself should be analysed in

order to determine its constitution. About 65% of lipsticks share

the same ingredients, however some are different and this

difference can provide the identiﬁcation of the lipstick

manufacturer [37] .

Lip prints can be recorded in a number of ways. If located on

a non-porous surface, lip prints can be photographed and

enlarged [33] . Using transparent overlays, it is possible to make

an overlay tracing [20,33] .

In some circumstances, lip prints can be covered with

substances allowing direct observation and photography

[15,20] . As previously referred to, the development of lip

prints can be made using several substances, such as aluminium

powder, silver metallic powder, silver nitrate powder, plumb

carbonate powder, fat black aniline dyer or cobalt oxide

[14,37,40] . All lip prints contain lipids which make their

development possible by using lysochromes dyes (Sudan III,

Oil Red O, Sudan Black) [34] . Sometimes, the use of

ﬂuorescent reagents is necessary [35,37,39] , especially when

the colour of the developer and the colour of the surface on

which the lip print lies are the same, or when the lip print is an

old brand [34,39,43] .

Plumb carbonate is a white powder which can be used as a

developer with a brush, over smooth, polished, metallic or

plastic surfaces. Its only limitation is its use over white surfaces

[34] . In such circumstances, marphil black powder or fat black

aniline dyer are better choices since they both have a dark

colour [34] . Silver nitrate can lead to positive results on non-

ideal surfaces, such as untreated wood or cardboard [41,44] .

DFO (1,8-Diazaﬂuoren-9-one) and ninhydrin are chemical

developers also used on porous surfaces [41,44] . On plastic or

waxed surfaces, or on vinyl gloves, using cyanoacrylate dye is a

good choice [41,44] . In photographs, latent prints can be

developed using cyanoacrilate dye or an iodine spray reagent

[41] .

Lips may also be studied and recorded in order to allow a

proper comparative analysis. Although lips can be photo-

graphed directly, covering them with lipstick allows better

groove visualisation [20,33] . The lip prints should be recorded,

making several recordings until all transfer mediums are

exhausted. Then, prints are covered with transparent overlays

and, when using a magnifying lens, a trace can be successfully

done [33] .

Merkelson–Rosenthal syndrome, syphilis, lip cheilitis, among

others), which can invalidate the cheiloscopic study [23] .

One must also consider the possibility of post-mortem

changes of lip prints from cadavers with various causes of

death. Utsuno et al. [28] have studied these changes and

concluded that a satisfactory identiﬁcation rate was achieved.

However, this study was carried out under a laboratory

environment and what happens to lip prints obtained from

cadavers exposed to the natural environment is still not known.

It should also be pointed out that only in very limited

circumstances, is there antemortem data referring to lip prints,

which obviously impairs a comparative study where necroi-

dentiﬁcation is concerned. The main feature for dental

identiﬁcation is the existence of antemortem data

[6,12,13,45,46] , which cannot be expected in cheiloscopy.

Therefore, the only use of cheiloscopy will be to relate lip prints

to the lips that produced them.

3. Palatoscopy

Palatoscopy, or palatal rugoscopy, is the name given to the

study of palatal rugae in order to establish a person’s identity

[2,11,22,47] .

3.1. Historical review

It seems that Kuppler, in 1897, was the ﬁrst person to study

palatal anatomy to identify racial anatomic features [2] . Palatal

rugoscopy was ﬁrst proposed in 1932, by a Spanish investigator

called Trobo Hermosa [20,47] . In 1937, Carrea developed a

detailed study and established a way to classify palatal rugae

[20,47] . One year later, Da Silva proposed another classiﬁca-

tion and, in 1946, Martins dos Santos presented a practical

classiﬁcation based on rugae location [47,48] . In 1983, Bri ˜ on,

following the studies of Carrea, divided palatal rugae into two

groups (fundamental and speciﬁc) in a similar way to that done

with ﬁngerprints [47] . In this manner, dactiloscopy and

palatoscopy were united as similar methods based on the

same scientiﬁc principles [48] and are sometimes complemen-

tary: for instance, palatoscopy can be of special interest in those

cases where there are no ﬁngers to be studied (burned bodies or

bodies in severe decomposition) [48] .

3.2. Anatomical aspects

2.5. Problems with cheiloscopy

The lip print is produced by a substantially mobile portion of

the lip. This fact alone explains the reason why the same person

can produce different lip prints, according to the pressure,

direction and method used in taking the print [33] . If lipstick is

used, the amount can also affect the print. This problem

however, can be solved if recordings are made until all of the

substance is used [20,33] .

Manual register of the overlay is another problem, due to the

possibility of some subjectivity [33] . Another factor to be

considered is the existence of some pathological conditions

(lymphangiomas, congenital lip ﬁstula, lip sclerodermia,

The surface of the oral mucosa is mostly ﬂat and smooth

without grooves or crests. This happens in order to achieve the

best performance in oral functions. Nevertheless, there are

some exceptions [29] :

The back of the tongue, which is covered with papillae;

The anterior portion of the palatal mucosa is another

exception, having a dense system of rugae, ﬁrmly attached to

the underling bone.

Palatal rugae are irregular, asymmetric ridges of mucous

membrane extending lateral from the incisive papilla and the

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