October, 2001
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California dentists I.D. terror victims
For some, teeth may be only clues remaining
Dr. Duane Spencer
"Dentists throughout the country and Canada have volunteered their services and are waiting to serve."
Dentists interested in more information about forensic dentistry can check the American Board of Forensic Odontology Web site at www.abfo.org or the odontology section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Web site at www.aafs.org.
Several California forensic experts are on the team of volunteer dentists working eight- to 12-hour shifts around the clock in New York to help identify victims of the Sept.11 attack on the World Trade Center.
The dentists, headed by Jeffrey Burkes, DDS, chief forensic dentist for New York City’s medical examiner’s office, are making progress in the largest forensic identification effort ever conducted in the United States. As of Oct. 4, the medical examiner’s office reported 240 positive identifications – 88 through dentition. Burkes told the ADA that dental evidence is reaching the medical examiner’s office more quickly now than in previous weeks.
More than 5,000 people are reported missing in the attack, and the search for bodies is expected to take months as clean-up workers excavate more than 1 million tons of debris in lower Manhattan.
California volunteers on the New York team include Gerald Vale, DDS, MDS, JD, chief forensic dental consultant for Los Angeles County; Norman "Skip" Sperber, DDS, chief forensic dental examiner for San Diego County’s Medical Examiner’s Office; Gregory Golden, DDS; Joseph Anselmo, DDS; Cathy A. Law, DDS; James Wood, DDS; and Janice Klim, DDS.
Other California dentists trained in forensics have pledged their professional and financial support.
"The rest of us have our information on file with ADA," said Duane E. Spencer, DDS, a member of the California Society of Forensic Dentists. "Dentists throughout the country and Canada have volunteered their services and are waiting to serve."
Burkes told the ADA that "we’re accepting the names of as many experienced volunteers as we can get. We want to limit the amount of time each dentist works because we know that the longer anybody is on duty, the more likely mistakes will be made."
Separate teams of forensic experts are working at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base and in Pennsylvania to assist in the identification of victims in the Pentagon attack and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93.
Forensic dentists are working closely with medical examiners, molecular biologists and pathologists to identify remains of victims of the tragedies.
Los Angeles Times science writer Robert Lee Hotz, reporting from New York, wrote that "in the end, a million fragments of human body parts – many burned or torn beyond recognition – may be found in the wreckage. Each fragment will be bagged, tagged with a bar code, entered into a computer database, and its every characteristic, down to its DNA, studied intently in the months to come."
The role of forensic dentists in the process is essential, as teeth are an almost indestructible maker of identity. Tooth enamel may be the only substance able to endure the fire or crushing steel beams of the World Trade Center collapse. Forensic odontologists say dental enamel can withstand temperatures as high as 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
For Burke’s team, teeth provide valuable clues to identity such as missing teeth, fillings and crowns. The ADA reports that all of this information is entered into a computer, which then narrows down possible matches. Final identification is made by two separate dentists who compare X-rays of the cadaver’s teeth to those provided by victims’ families. If the two dentists don’t agree, a third dentist, usually Burkes, will make the final determination.
According to information from the ADA, the forensic dentists volunteering in New York are rotating between four teams. The "go team," members are dispatched to the scene to safeguard and retrieve dental evidence. The "antemortem team," works with dental records of presumed victims, transposing and entering information from radiographs and charts into the computer program. The New York office is running both WinID and CavID identification software programs to ensure that a computer crash won’t necessitate re-entering information. The "postmortem team" is a team of three that receives and radiographs remaining dental structures as well as charts and develops X-rays. One person calls out the remaining dental structures; one retracts and cleans while double-checking the first’s assessment; and the third transcribes the information and serves as an additional pair of eyes. The "comparison team" uses a viewbox to compare the radiographs of unknown victims to known people. The number of radiographs to compare is narrowed down by the identification software programs.
"I couldn’t ask for a more dedicated group of people," Burke told the ADA. "Many volunteers here are using the lodging facilities offered by New York University, which are unfurnished rooms without beds. I haven’t heard a ‘no’ from anybody for any job, from the most menial to the most responsible."
– Compiled by CDA Update staff