If they don’t know who you are they can’t go to YOUR dentist, right? Is there a National database that stores all of our our bitewings – I don’t remember consenting to that! And teeth look a lot alike on those X-rays – do you need special training to tell one set apart from another?
In: 1811
Dentists might get emails from the state or law enforcement and generally say that they need assistance with identifying a patient based on dental records. May include whatever findings they have about the person in the email such as age, gender, etc. Can include the radiographs and if dentists know of the person, they can respond.
Teeth don’t break down when the body decomposes, like your other bones in your body. Teeth will have certain identifying features that can help tell people apart. As rudimentary as it may seem, it’s all about identifying restorations in the radiograph, including the size and shape of it. If a person has five restorations on the right side, each restoration can lead towards a positive identification of the person. Even if you have radiographs of the person from five years ago and they get some work done, you can still identify older fillings that they have. All this works towards getting that identification needed.
Bonus, if your dentures have some identification on it be it your name or your prison ID, it can help identify you if you had your dentures in when you die. So make sure to get your dentures with your name on them please, it’s helpful, and helpful so the other people in the home can’t steal your dentures and claim it’s theirs.
Source, am dentist
I’m pretty sure you can extract DNA from the pulp of the tooth. Does anyone know any more?
What everyone is saying about using records to confirm is true. Additionally, in some long term unidentified cases, local police will get the coroner to X ray the decedent’s teeth, and then send that info to a bunch local dentists to see if *they* can recognize the teeth and subsequently match them using actual records. I believe this is what happened in the Somerton Man case (he’s still unidentified, though they’re now trying DNA databases out).
> I don’t remember consenting to that!
Notably, your medical records are not barred from being turned over to law enforcement if there’s a warrant for them. HIPAA law says that “[t]he Privacy Rule permits use and disclosure of protected health information, without an individual’s authorization or permission, for 12 national priority purposes”, one of which reads (emphasis mine):
>Covered entities may disclose protected health information to law enforcement officials for law enforcement purposes under the following six circumstances, and subject to specified conditions: (1) as required by law (including court orders, court-ordered warrants, subpoenas) and administrative requests; **(2) to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person**; **(3) in response to a law enforcement official’s request for information about a victim or suspected victim of a crime;** (4) to alert law enforcement of a person’s death, if the covered entity suspects that criminal activity caused the death; (5) when a covered entity believes that protected health information is evidence of a crime that occurred on its premises; and (6) by a covered health care provider in a medical emergency not occurring on its premises, when necessary to inform law enforcement about the commission and nature of a crime, the location of the crime or crime victims, and the perpetrator of the crime.
Source: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-regulations/index.html
Dental records are used to confirm a hypothesis of identity. They find a body, think it’s John Smith from Missouri, subpoena Mr. Smiths Dental records, and confirm that, yes, indeed, it is him (or alternatively that it isn’t).
In the case of a completely unknown body with no hypothesis as to who it is, Dental records are useless, because no such database exists.
Wtf? I took a bite out of a chunk of cheese an hour ago and was going to ask this same question.
Cops can’t, its a person called a Forensic Dentist and it is a way to id dead John/Jane Does. And your dentition is as unique as your fingerprint.
In Canada, if you go missing your family can consent to having your dental records turned over to the police, who will enter them in a national police database. The police don’t have access directly to dental records, only indirectly via family consent in cases of missing people, or via warrants in other cases.
When they find a corpse they can search the database for anyone with dental artifacts that match the body. They would then do more detailed comparisons between the body and records to try to make a positive ID.
Let me tell you about these female operatives who get your dental records with cameras implanted on their nipples.
To add to what was said: If you have a pile of 100 charred bodies and you know who the people in the plane/building were but would like to identify each individual body, it’s easy to get the records.
> And teeth look a lot alike on those X-rays
I would expect they’re looking for fillings, not the teeth themselves.
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