This review article focuses on mass disaster situations that may arise from natural or manmade circumstances and the significant role of forensic dental personnel in human identification following such occurrences. The various forensic dental modalities of identification that include matching techniques, postmortem profiling, genetic fingerprinting, dental fossil assessment and dental biometrics with digital subtraction were considered. The varying extent of use of forensic dental techniques and the resulting positive impact on human identification were considered. The importance of preparation by way of special training for forensic dental personnel, mock disaster rehearsal, and use of modern day technology was tressed. There is a growing interest in and a necessity for utilizing the skills of forensic dentist in mass disaster. Further training and education of dental practitioners is needed in order to fully integrate general dental practitioners into the trauma team and to change the current attitude to admit a meaningful role for dentists in a mass casualty situation. 

Key words: Forensic odontology; Mass disasters; Dental identification.