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It’s been many weeks that class started and IVe learned more about bones and how sex, height, race and age are determined. It’s been interesting to see how much information can be obtained by analyzing bones. I watched Bones Seasonl, episode 10 “Woman In the Airport. ” Episode 10 was about human remains found In an area of LA airport. The bones of a young woman In her 2CYs was found, however, Dr. Brennan is having difficulties identifying the person due to the major plastic surgery procedures the victim went through.
The young girl didn’t Just change her face she changed her skull which is why it was hard to identify her. The usual indicators have been modified which Is difficult for the forensic artist to construct a face that would match to the original. She comes up with different posslbllltles of what the victim might have looked like but is asked by Dr. Brennan to make a smart estimate. The forensic artist is not comfortable with this because it means she has to guess.
There are three facial variations due to cheekbone being shaved, chin being shaved and aw reconstructed but no one knows what the victim couldVe done to her eyebrows, lips, or nose and that’s the reason why the artist came up with three different faces as possibilities. I was surprised to learn that plastic surgery Is not only modifications to of soft tissue; it also can include the alteration of bones or skull. Plastic surgeons perform rhlnoplasty, chondrolaryngoplasty, brow ridge contouring, and forehead reconstruction. These procedures are mainly for patients seeking a sex change and want to alter their face to look more feminine. Dr. Spiegel, 201 3) Other ways to alter he face but not the skeletal structure is by adding fillers or chin implants to make a change on the person’s face; In other words they can make the Jaw or mandible bigger but not smaller. It seems that In the Philippines and In Korea they perform plastic surgery that can help change the facial skeletal structure. It is something that can be offered for facial improvement but can be very involved due to the bruising and pain that it causes on the patient. Patients will go through this procedure In order to cut the Jaw and create a slender face. Banobagl, 2012) A breast Implant was ound along with the bones and it became the only lead Dr. Brennan had that can help identify the victim. The FBI was able to track down the surgeon that owned the implants. unfortunately, the plastic surgeon had reported Implants as stolen from his office a few months ago. Apparently the victim got them off the black market which brought the investigators to a dead end. The plastic surgeon mentioned that a couple of breast implants were recovered because a girl had the breast implants removed due to complications and that’s when the serial number matched the ones that were eported stolen.
The FBI found out that she was a call girl, they went to call girls workplace to ask if there was anyone missing, they show the person in charge three different face variations to see if any of the faces look familiar. She picks one of them and gives them a name but another brick wall because it in an alias the dead girl gave her clients. No one really knows the victim’s real name because she has changed It different times and with different procedures that she went through It was hard to keep up with how she actually looks. Identifying the victim was OF3 that the victim’s teeth were veneered.
It seems that having veneer teeth did not allow the forensic odontologist to identify the person. I am not sure how accurate this scene is to real life because I searched for information on veneers and how it would affect a person if they needed to be identified and there was no evidence that I can find indicating that a person’s teeth or bite impression would change if the teeth were veneered. Forensic odontologists are very important and very helpful in identifying a person and in some cases it helps identify the assailant. Teeth are very strong and can resist harsh conditions like fires, explosions and water immersions. Mozayani, 2006) Dr. Brennan and her team had to look closely at what they have because nothing seems to be helping them get closer to identifying the woman. The forensic team looks at the skull to see if they can tell what kind of surgical equipment and technique is used because this can lead to the surgeon that performed the surgery. They find that the method that was used on the victim is not recognized by the American Board Associations which indicated that she had more than one urgeon and he or she was performing illegal procedures.
They are trying to find out what murder weapon was used because the marks it left on the bones is not something theyVe seen before. The forensic team realizes that the same marks were left on the Jaw after the surgical procedure. There is only one surgeon that performs this type of procedures; he designed the special operating instruments because he wanted to prove that bones can be altered. This is the opportunity theyVe been waiting for and gave all the answers they FBI and Dr. Brennan needed to solve the case.
After learning that bones change after puberty and it becomes easier to differentiate between female and male bones, I thought that it didn’t matter if a person went through a sex change since the bones do not change. However, I came across an article by Nathaniel Vinton that discusses how an athlete Heidi Krieger was unwillingly doped with anabolic steroids in the 1970s. These steroids are harmful to girls that are going through puberty because it affects their reproductive system, genetalia, behavior and bones. This is another way that bones are modified without having surgery.
Vinton, 2013) Bones Seasonl, episode 10 “Woman in the Airport” was very entertaining for me because every time that I thought it would be easy to identify the victim something impede that from happening. It was interesting to see that a clue would arise and it would help continue the investigation but in real life if it wasn’t for these clues maybe it wouldn’t be that easy to identify a body. This episode also showed the importance of forensic anthropologist’s experience because it required everything they knew to be applied in this case to help identify the woman.
I also learned that bones can be altered but not to the point where it would be impossible to identify a person and to separate a male from female bones.