Manish Raj

Disasters are unfortunately a fact of life which affects individuals as well as communities. A disaster is the impact of a natural or human- made hazard that negatively affects society or environment. A mass disaster is an unanticipated and unexpected event of calamitous proportion that causes widespread injury or death. These catastrophic events can be aircraft crashes, train derailments, refinery explosions, natural disasters, or a myriad of other events and occurrences never before experienced. The identification of large numbers of casualties in mass disasters is complex and fraught with hazards, both physically and emotionally. The identification process is fundamentally the same as that in a routine comparative dental identification, but the inherent problems are magnified. Problems of body fragmentation, mutilation, commingling and incineration, idiosyncratic dental records from numerous regions, poor working conditions and psychological stresses all confound the identification process. The key to successful mass disaster identification is preparedness.