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Postmortem Changes of Gingival Tissues Submerged in Water Environment: a Literature Review 1 Department of Forensic Odontology, Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Trisakti, Indonesia Abstract Background: Death by drowning has taken the lives of many individuals due to accidents or disasters. Aside from victim identification, determination of Postmortem Interval (PMI) is a critical part in forensic odontology investigations. In the case of drowning victims, PMI determination of bodies submerged in water proves to be challenging due to the wet environment and other unique conditions surrounding the decomposing body. When examining tissues in the oral cavity, dental tissue-which is considered a hard tissue-has more durability and survives better in extreme environments compared to soft tissues. Whereas gingival tissues-which are soft tissues-undergo faster postmortem alterations, meaning that it would be more useful to determine shorter PMIs. Objective: This article aims to unfold the differences of gingival postmortem changes in a normal environment compared to a water environment, be it salt water and fresh water. Method: A literature review was done through a synthesis of journals from three databases, which are Google Scholar, Pubmed, and Science Direct. Result and Conclusion: The findings revealed that compared to normal conditions, decomposition in water is slower due to the temperature and anaerobic environment. Changes in the gingival tissues mainly occur histologically (both in the epithelial and connective tissues) in the shape of progressive destruction in correlation with time. For forensic dentists, knowledge of postmortem changes that occur in the gingival tissues in a water environment is important for considering PMI that could potentially aid in forensic investigations. Keywords: Decomposition, Forensic Odontology, Gingival Tissues, Postmortem Interval, Water Environment Topic: Dental Sciences |
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