Aadhaar Number Labeled Complete Denture: A Case Report

Personal identification is of prime importance for forensic and medicolegal purposes especially in case of natural calamities, accidents, state of unconsciousness, or loss of memory. Denture identification systems are important not only for patients in health-care facilities, old-age homes, and hospitals but also in medico-legal cases. In India, no standardized method is being followed for labeling of the dentures. This article proposes a technique of denture marking that gives permanent, unique, and global identification to all the Indian nationals using Aadhaar - a universally accepted identity for Indian nationals.


Introduction
Identity has always been very important in society and is considered an important part of intelligence research. Humans can be identified by traces of their DNA extracted from the skin, hair, blood, saliva, and using DNA fingerprints, and from fingerprints teeth or bitemarks using forensic odontology. Alternative reusable diagnostic systems are facial recognition, motion analysis, voice analysis, handwriting analysis, and biometric methods 1 .
Aadhaar (UIN), a unique 12-character ID number, is an Indian Government effort to identify Indian citizens differently and digitally for the primary purpose of tracking individual social security. Individual diversity is determined on the basis of demographics and biometrics (fingerprints and retina scanners). Any Indian citizen, regardless of age (even 1 year old children) and gender, who satisfies the certification process set by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) can register for free.
The Indian government has made it obligatory to link Aadhaar number with various government and nongovernmental services such as banks, digital locks, cellular telecommunications, attendance chart for civil servants, and the purchase of vehicles making it the most effective citizen identification system in India. As of July 1, 2017, the federal government has made it mandatory to link existing Aadhaar numbers to the Permanent Tax Account Number. Therefore, the Aadhaar card is appearing to be more than an identity card.
Labeling of dentures helps to identify victims of fatal disasters, improper dentures left in hospitals, patients in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, and patients who are unconscious or have mental problems 2 . Although there is no procedure for labeling dentures, they are classified as marking and inclusion methods. The surface marking methods include engraving the cast, scribbling on dentures/writing on the denture surface with spirit pens but were not very effective as they got rapidly removed by one or more abrasive, denture cleansers, or antiseptic/mouthwash agents. The inclusion methods involve incorporation of microchips, lenticular cards, and radio-based tagging transponders into the dentures, which is expensive and time consuming [3][4][5] .
This article describes a simple, quick economical and a very effective method for identification of edentulous individuals that requires no additional armamentarium.

Technique
Step 1: Fabrication of complete denture using conventional procedure.
Step 2: Take a photograph of QR code and print the QR code on high gloss photographic paper. Cut the printed image in appropriate size and apply cellotape on both sides of the printed paper in order to prevent smudging of ink on contact with acrylic monomer (Figure 1).
Step 3: Make a truff using round bur on the palatal surface of maxillary denture and on the lingual surface of mandibular denture (Figure 2).
Step 4: Place the QR code paper in this truff area and apply clear cold cure over that and finish and polish the surface ( Figure 3).

Discussion
Although a wide array of techniques have been used in private and commercial laboratories to identify the dentures, and no standardized method is followed [5][6][7] . Regulatory bodies (American Dental Association, 1982) have encouraged the newly fabricated prosthesis to be marked with an identification system (Ling, 1998) 7 . Besides the existence of numerous identification systems (voter card, ration cards, Permanent Account Number/ PAN cards, passports, and driving license) in Indian subcontinent, none of them covers the entire population of India. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is an agency that issues a 12-digit number, which is unique for every citizen. This Aadhaar number can be used to identify the residents anywhere in the country in order to access certain benefits and services. Kruger-Monson suggested certain requirements for denture labeling: the strength of the prosthesis must not be jeopardized; the system should be efficient, simple and cost effective; the identification mark must be able to withstand fire and humidity apart from being durable