«Postmortem Pink-Teeth»: un curioso fenómeno

Abstract

The earliest available reference to the post-mortem pink teeth phenomenon (the pink-red coloration of teeth on dead bodies) comes from 1829, when Bell described the red pigmentation on bodies whose death was caused by drowning and hanging. Since then, different scientists have tried to find a correlation between the red coloration and the causes of death, with little or no success. Histological analyses have shown that the pink appearance in teeth is due to haemoglobin's breakdown into its degradation products due to an autolysis of the pulp. These degradation products then filter into the dentine, giving the tooth a pinkish appearance from the outside. The causes of why this process occurs are, nevertheless, many, but studies have reached several conclusions: the phenomenon occurs primarily on deaths related to non-natural causes, especially drowning, but cases related to natural causes should not be discarded. In addition, a moist environment and sufficient time after death to allow the coloration process to take place are essential factors. Due to the different circumstances in which pink teeth have been observed, and the diverse results obtained on either experimental and/or real cases studied, it can be concluded that no connection exists between the formation of the phenomenon and the causes of death.