Dental Impressions ("Toothprints") Provide DNA Too
Program aims to protect children By Lori Heller TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, November 13, 2005 A new tool to safeguard children can be kept at home in a drawer, or packed into a suitcase for family vacations. It's a hard plastic dental impression that carries a child's individual blueprint, including scent and DNA from saliva. If kept sealed in a sterile plastic bag, this gizmo can give authorities a biological picture of a missing child. Trained search dogs can use the scent to track the child. The dental impressions, trademarked as Toothprints, can be completed at home or in the dentist's office. Louann Starr of Greensburg obtained the identification markers for her 14-year-old daughter, Jessica Trujillo, and her 6-year-old niece, Morgan Starr, 6, who lives with them. "This is much better than the fingerprinting," said Louann Starr. "This is a great thing to have. But, I think it's a shame we even have to think of something like" what to do if a child is kidnapped or abducted. Dr. Carla Capozzi, a Penn Township orthodontist, has been offering Toothprints free to children as part of a community-service project that will continue until her supply is depleted. "There was no reason not to do this," Louann Starr said as the two girls bit down on the warmed, softened plastic wafers in Capozzi's office. It didn't hurt, the girls reported. The thermoplastic wafer is warmed to at least 170 degrees, Capozzi said, and is soft enough when placed into a child's mouth to take an impression. Within seconds, the wafer is removed from the mouth and put into a bag and then sealed. The plastic hardens within minutes as it cools. It should not be stored in the refrigerator or freezer because the scent may diminish at colder temperatures. Starr said she is amazed that the girls' scents can be taken from the wafers. If either child is kidnapped or missing, Starr said, the wafers would give search dogs an advantage to track the child "before the real bad stuff happen." It's the unthinkable: sexual assault or even death. Search dogs are being trained to track scents taken from Toothprints, said Dr. John Wagner, a Seattle dentist who has worked to refine the thermoplastic product. He pointed to research being conducted by a group called Canines For Kids in which a search dog was given a child's 2-year-old impression and was instructed to track a trail laid by the child 24 hours before the test run. The dog found the child with no problem, Wagner said. A veteran search-dog handler said he believes a piece of clothing or shoe belonging to a missing child works best to give a dog a scent to track. "It's a very noble thing people are doing by getting involved in" designing tools to safeguard children, said Anthony Rozzano, commanding officer of Air Search Rescue in Harmar, Allegheny County. He said that the DNA component of Toothprints would be invaluable when an unidentified body is found. Capozzi said charted dental records are sometimes inadequate for forensic identification. Testing indicates the DNA captured in Toothprints could be a successful identification marker up to four years after the initial dental impression was taken, according to Wagner. Because the product has not been in circulation much longer than four years, Wagner said, it is not known how long the DNA sample could be preserved in the sealed bag. It's feasible that a DNA sample taken from a dental impression "would probably last much longer than" four or five years, said Pittsburgh researcher Dr. Mary Marazita. Saliva contains cells from the body, and every cell contains a complete copy of a person's DNA, said Marazita, associate dean for research in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Dental Medicine in Oakland. Although Marazita is not familiar with Toothprints, she said as a rule a DNA sample is "more precise than a fingerprint." http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/westmoreland/s_394068.html