Bite marks

Bites are commonly seen in cases of:
i. Sexual assault: Marks are usually seen on breasts, neck, shoulders, thighs, abdomen, pubis or vulva.🍑
ii. Child abuse: Marks are seen anywhere on the body, such as arms, hands, shoulders, cheeks, buttocks and trunk.👶🏻👧🏻🧒🏻
iii. Bite marks on foodstuffs (apples, cheese or chocolate), leather (key rings or belts) and wood (pencils) in cases where a perpetrator might have taken a bite out of something in the victim's home and left it behind.🍎🧇🧀
iv. Police officers may be bitten by the resisting offenders.
v. In sporting events, such as football, rugby or wrestling.
In assaults, where marks may be found anywhere on
the body.
Nature of bite marks: Comprise of a crop of punctate hemorrhages varying from small petechiae to large🩸🩸🩸 ecchymoses merging into a confluent central bruise. Human bite is semicircular or crescentic caused by the front teeth (incisors and canines) with a gap on either side due to separation of upper and lower jaw, whereas deep parabolic arch or U-shaped is characteristic of an animal bite. There may be abrasions, bruises and lacerations or a combination of all these.
* Self-inflicted bite marks are present on accessible parts of the body, e.g., shoulders or arms, usually seen in psychiatric patients or teenage girls.
* Accidental marks resulting from falls on to the face and during fits, biting of tongue and lips may also be there.
In sexual assault, sucking action during bites reduces the air pressure in the center, and produces multiple petechial hemorrhages due to rupture of small capillaries and venules.
Identification from bite marks is possible, if incisors and canines have some characteristic features.
Bite mark investigation
1. Photograph: Bite mark is photographed from different angles.📽️
2. Swabbing of saliva: To identify or exclude assailant from 'secretor' status who exude blood group substances in the saliva.💧💦
3. Impression of bite mark: Plastic substance (rubber or silicone based) or plaster of Paris is laid over the bite mark that hardens and produces permanent negative cast of the lesion.
4, Skin carrying the bite is removed and preserved in formalin during autopsy.🥃