And a chance to learn how inaccurate TV and films are.
Last night I saw a show that once again made it seem like they can identify a body based on the dental work done.
As in a John Doe with no clues.
This simply does not work. There is no overreaching database and even if there was what shows on an individual dentists records is not nearly enough to identify someone. It just shows what part of a tooth some work was done on or teeth that were removed.
That said the other end of things does work and works well. If they have a body and think it is likely a certain person the dentist involved can confirm things, sometimes. No dental work done is the same for 99.9% of cases.
My father had to make such an identification once.
Oh and there is more than just what was done. Most dentists can tell their own work from the work of others. And in some cases they can identify other dentist's work. My father is gone. My current dentist was his associate until retirement. My current dentist can identify which work was done by my dad, which he did and also the crown done by a third (very good) dentist.
In fact when you factor in that it would be all but impossible for someone to fake dental work unless they had a sample of the work of every dentist who had worked on a patient.
Last night I saw a show that once again made it seem like they can identify a body based on the dental work done.
As in a John Doe with no clues.
This simply does not work. There is no overreaching database and even if there was what shows on an individual dentists records is not nearly enough to identify someone. It just shows what part of a tooth some work was done on or teeth that were removed.
That said the other end of things does work and works well. If they have a body and think it is likely a certain person the dentist involved can confirm things, sometimes. No dental work done is the same for 99.9% of cases.
My father had to make such an identification once.
Oh and there is more than just what was done. Most dentists can tell their own work from the work of others. And in some cases they can identify other dentist's work. My father is gone. My current dentist was his associate until retirement. My current dentist can identify which work was done by my dad, which he did and also the crown done by a third (very good) dentist.
In fact when you factor in that it would be all but impossible for someone to fake dental work unless they had a sample of the work of every dentist who had worked on a patient.
