About teeth in forensic medicine: 120 years since G.I. Vilga defended Russia’s first doctoral dissertation on forensic dentistry

1923 marked the 120th anniversary of the defense of the doctoral dissertation “On Teeth in Forensic Medicine” by the outstanding Russian odontologist Gilyariy Ivanovich Vilga. The dissertation included an extensive review of foreign literature and the results of his research performed on 160 young healthy men (soldiers) using hand-made instruments.

The work, performed at the junction of odontology and forensic medicine, was the first in Russia to analyze traumatic dental injuries (dislocations and fractures) from this point of view, describe methods of identification of a person by odontological status, methods of studying bite wounds, and approaches to forensic examination of dental and dental technique errors. For many years, this work remained the only manual for odontologists and forensic experts in Russia.

Many provisions of the doctoral dissertation of G.I. Vilga “About teeth in forensic medical relation” have not lost their relevance even today; all this certainly allows us to consider G.I. Vilga as the founder of domestic forensic dentistry.