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September 25, 2007

Brush and floss, sure, but consider toothprinting too

If you’re afraid that your child or another family member may wander off or be abducted, and you are storing fingerprints or photographs in the event that happens, consider adding another identifier: a toothprint.

In Cumberland today, Mason, a three-year-old saliva-sniffing German Shepherd, and his handler, police officer William Bailey of Dracut, Mass., visited a dentist's office to show off the dog’s scent-sniffing skills to police officials from Cumberland and neighboring Central Falls.

Dr. Angeles V. Felix opened her office at 490 High Street for a demonstration of the toothprinting process. It's a dental imprint of a person’s bite that can be used to identify a body, especially when the body is that of a younger child who may not have a dental record.

And it can be useful for tracking missing people because the imprint captures a person’s DNA and saliva. Specially-trained police dogs can seek out a missing person or people based on a whiff of saliva and the DNA can be used to compare to other samples gathered at the scene of a crime.

In New England, there are two such saliva-sniffing dogs, kept by the police departments in Milton, Mass. and Dracut, Mass.

-- Journal staff writer Philip Marcelo

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 6:37 PM | Permalink

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