Forensic Dentistry Has Its Roots in the American Revolution

In the 18th century, colonial America was under threat. The enemy wasn’t an overbearing imperial power, though. It was smallpox.

Among the physicians at the front lines was Dr. Joseph Warren. During the 1760s, Warren made a name for himself in Boston as he treated smallpox patients and inoculated residents. He even immunized John Adams against the deadly disease.

The well-regarded doctor held prominent positions in other aspects of colonial Boston. Warren was an ardent supporter of the American Revolution, a member of the Sons of Liberty and a leader of a Patriot spy ring. In May 1775, he became president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, the local political center of colonial resistance.

Warren was also an active military official and joined combat as the British retreated from Lexington and Concord. On June 14, the Provincial Congress named Warren a major general. Just days later, he voluntarily faced off with the British again during the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was there on June 17, 1775, that a fatal shot to the head killed the 34-year-old doctor.

Months went by before Warren’s body was recovered. Even then, his family wasn’t sure they had found the right man. It took a close examination of his teeth to identify the revolutionary in what became an early entry in the field of forensic dentistry.

A person’s “dentistry can be very unique,” Dr. Lawrence Dobrin says. Dobrin is a forensic dentist whose experience includes serving as chief forensic dentist for New York City, forensic dental consultant for New Jersey’s regional medical examiner and a member of the federal Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team Region 2. He explains that chipped or missing teeth, fillings, dental crowns and bridges, implants and other features can help identify bodies as long as there’s some knowledge of what people’s mouths looked like prior to death.

After winning the Battle of Bunker Hill, the British buried Warren near the battlefield in a mass grave. It wasn’t until March 1776 that British forces left the area, which gave Warren’s family the opportunity to try to bury him properly. Early that April, they found a grave with two bodies but initially couldn’t determine which one was Warren’s.

A careful look at the corpses’ teeth revealed which belonged to Warren. The April 25, 1776, edition of The New-England Chronicle stated: “Though the Body (which our savage enemies ‘scarce privileged with earth enough to hide it from the birds of prey’) was disfigured, when taken up, yet it was sufficiently known by two artificial teeth, which were set for him a short time before his glorious exit.”

Textbooks, the American Dental Association and multiple museums are among the sources that have said American folk hero Paul Revere created a dental bridge for Warren and later recognized it on Warren’s body. Revere has therefore been called a forensic dentist—but this might not be accurate.

It’s true that Revere, in addition to being a silversmith, worked as a dentist before the Revolutionary War. After the French and Indian War and the Stamp Act of 1765, the colonial economy struggled, meaning fewer people were interested in the wares at Revere’s Boston shop. In 1768, Revere advertised dentistry services. A second ad in 1770 proclaimed “he has fixt some Hundreds of Teeth.”

Silversmithing provided Revere with useful skills for dentistry. Robert Martello, a professor of the history of science and technology at Olin College of Engineering and the author of Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn: Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise, says Revere was a highly skilled artisan who excelled at design and fabrication and “never hesitated to take on a new challenge.”

“Revere also knew how to create silver wire,” he adds. “As a silversmith, he soldered this wire to some of his silverwork. As a dentist, he would use silver wire to fasten false teeth into someone’s mouth, which was one facet of his dentistry.”

It’s also certain that Warren and Revere were acquainted. It was Warren who sent Revere on his famous midnight ride to Lexington, Massachusetts, to inform revolutionary leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock about the movement of British troops.

However, Tegan Kehoe, research and adult program director at The Paul Revere House, says: “We do not have definitive record of Revere having done dental work for Warren.”

Kehoe says that she and other researchers who are friends of the Revere House aren’t aware of any mention of Revere identifying Warren’s dental work prior to General William H. Sumner’s Reminiscences of Gen. Warren and Bunker Hill, published in 1858. The book says of Warren’s identification, “If stronger evidence of its identity were wanting, that afforded by Col. Revere, who set the artificial tooth, (which ‘Historian’ says led to the ‘mere conjecture’ that it was Warren’s body,) and who recollected the wire he used in fastening it in, would afford it.”

“We don’t know who ‘Historian’ was a reference to,” Kehoe says, adding, “Because this source is from many decades after the fact, it’s tricky to say whether it’s definitive.” She explains that awareness of the uncertainty around Revere’s forensic dentistry has increased in recent years, noting, “We are continually refining our understanding of history.”

Whether Revere acted as a forensic dentist during the Revolutionary War, forensic dentistry was key to identifying Warren. Today, it remains a trusted means of identification.

“There are three accepted methods by law of identification,” Dobrin says. “DNA is used. Fingerprinting is also utilized for identification and dentistry.”

Dobrin explains that forensic dentistry is particularly useful because teeth and many dental materials can survive high temperatures and extreme conditions. Records such as X-rays and photographs aid forensic dentists in their work. Forensic dentists have put names to people killed in events such as Hurricane Katrina and the September 11 attacks. Dobrin says teeth found in New York City sewers a decade after 9/11 still were able to identify victims.

As to why Revere himself has been dubbed a forensic dentist, The Paul Revere House’s Kehoe has a theory: “I think it’s representative of the fact that Revere has become an American legend—he’s lionized for one thing he did, but many people are intrigued by other facets of his life, and this leads to both true and potentially apocryphal stories circulating.”