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Forensic dentist Dr. Mehran Daoudian helps give the dead their names. I asked him the question nobody asks: how many innocent people has his profession helped convict?

In this conversation: the ways a body gets identified (dental X-rays, DNA and fingerprints), what a mouth can tell a stranger, how accurate a dental age estimate really is, the Keith Harward case and the bite-mark controversy, what dentists should do to protect patients, and what it does to a person to do this work.

Dr. Daoudian runs the American Dental & Medical Institute in Pasadena. Everything he says about his career is his own account.

CONTENT NOTE: this episode includes the death of a child and autopsy work (36:55 to 38:15).

This is general information, not dental or medical advice. Opinions are the guest's own.

Sources: INTERPOL's Disaster Victim Identification Guide; NBC News (January 2024) on bite-mark analysis; Full Fact on dental age estimates.

CHAPTERS
00:00 The car, and the father who passed the exam
00:34 How many innocent people has your profession helped convict?
01:51 How teeth identify people
02:36 Burned bodies and how identification works
04:49 Armenia 2020: families waiting for answers
07:38 His aunt, and the models he made at ten
09:17 Paul Revere and the first dental identification
10:17 How many ways can you name a body?
13:48 What a mouth tells a stranger
14:43 How accurate is dental age?
16:18 Bite marks and the Keith Harward case
18:30 The bite that changed
20:30 Should teeth decide whether someone is a child?
22:12 The four-weekend dental assisting school
26:25 The secret his field doesn't tell patients
27:40 When your dentist should send you to a specialist
29:50 Is medicine just a big business?
31:35 Reviews, Yelp and what to check before you book
35:05 Why he does forensic work
36:55 The hardest cases
38:15 Going home after an autopsy
39:10 Would you believe "a scientific certainty"?
39:45 Foreign-trained dentists: starting over
40:15 Never too late: the father and the son
41:40 The name that stays with him

INSIGHT is hosted by Emma Sargsyan. New episodes Saturdays 1pm PT.
Partnerships and guest suggestions: emma@emmasargsyan.com

#forensics #dentistry #truecrime #INSIGHT

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