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June 24, 2009 | dentalproductsreport.com 
Web exclusive

Dead patients do talk

And you can help tell their stories.
First-hand accounts of forensic dentistry.

By Thais Carter, Editor in Chief

For many forensic dentists, their journey to this particular specialty starts with a crisis. Dr. Adam Freeman, the current president of the American Society of Forensic Odontology (ASFO), it was the tragic loss of three patients on September 11, 2001. For Dr. Gary Berman, a diplomate speaker for the American Board of Forensic Odontology (ABFO), it was the crash of Northwest Flight 255. For Dr. Dick Souviron, a co-founder of the ABFO, it was being called to identify his patient at the morgue.

These kinds of tragic events are the ones that make the newspapers and drive membership to the ASFO, but the large-scale tragedies, while memorable, are not the ones that shape the day-to-day experiences of the men and women that respond to the call in such emergencies.

Dr. Adam Freeman

“If you look at missing person files in the U.S., it’s between 40 and 60 thousand. There is work to be done by people with our type of training on a daily basis. Clearly, we get a lot more press during mass disasters, but not a day goes by when someone isn’t looking at a case,” Freeman explains. “If there is some sort of mass disaster, you might be off doing that full-time for several weeks, but what forensic dentists do on a daily basis consists of identifications of found bodies, missing persons, bitemark cases and age determinations. Very often, we work in malpractice suits, civil litigation, reviewing records and working as expert witnesses.”

“Probably 95% of what a forensic dentist does is identification,” Berman confirms.” To be able to help a grieving family with a quick identification so that they can have a funeral is part of why many of us do this. It is never for the money, since we get paid very little and spend much of our free time doing these cases. We do our work after regular hours and are on call every day. You don’t want to make a family wait any longer than necessary to find out if the deceased is their loved one.”

Finding justice

Dr. Dick Souviron

At its core, forensic dentistry is about integrating dental knowledge with the process of law, according to Winnie Furnari, RDH, MS, FAADH, a member of the New York Society of Forensic Dentistry.” We are gathering scientific evidence and interpreting it to provide facts, findings and other expert opinions so that justice may be served,” she says. This noble premise can quickly turn ugly for certain dental professionals lacking a firm grasp on the bigger picture.

“You have to have a passion for it, for helping the deceased, but you also have to be able to temper your passion to put bad guys away,” Souviron adds. “Sometimes, the police may have the wrong guy. You hear a lot about putting people away, but the press doesn’t always talk about how bitemark evidence proved someone didn’t do it. Other people have an ego trip—they want to be the good guy, the hero. The problem is, if you’re wrong you are really wrong. You have to be honest and do the right thing.”

Having worked with the prosecution on such highly publicized cases as the Ted Bundy killings, Souviron finds his work with the defense just as meaningful. “To see some of those cases where people were convicted and then, 13 years later, DNA evidence exonerated that person‹that makes you feel really good,” he says. “Like the Brewer case in Mississippi. Just a couple of years ago, they cleared him. My bitemark testimony had been accurate and looking back, 13 years later, I was right. At the time, I had been beat up for my statements.”

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