California Dentists Give Time and Money to N.Y.

Collette Knittel

Copyright 2002 Journal of the California Dental Association.

It is impossible to quantify kindness.

Still, as days turn into a series of Xs and months are torn off the calendar, the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches and with it the need to acknowledge the hours volunteered and the dollars donated in the relief attempt. Forensic dentists and the dental community as a whole gave generously and were instrumental in the recovery process.

The CDA Foundation currently reports $81,290 has been raised for the Sept. 11 Relief Fund. Money from the Foundation fund has been sent to the New York State Dental Association. Along with donations from other organizations, the fund was administered by a committee of dentists from the New York County Dental Society and distributed to dentists in lower Manhattan who sustained serious losses due to the terrorist attacks.

According to Ellen Gerber, CAE, executive director of the New York County Dental Society, the state dental association set up the grant assistance fund, and the county dental society formed a committee to screen applications and developed an extensive communication campaign to determine need among lower Manhattan dentists.

"Many dentists had practices that sustained damage or were inaccessible to patients," Gerber stated. "Other dentists lost a large portion of their patients."

California’s contribution went beyond the monetary. A team of forensic dentists from the state also volunteered their time, closed their practices, and paid their own expenses to report for duty on the East Coast during the extended process of identifying victims. California dentists who volunteered their time 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 and Imperial counties’ Medical Examiner’s Office; Gregory Golden, DDS, chief forensic dentist for San Bernardino County; Joseph Anselmo, DDS; Cathy A. Law, DDS; James Wood, DDS; Janice Klim, DDS; and Janice Lemann, DDS.

Upon their arrival, they were met at the Newark airport and given a midnight police escort through the barricaded Holland Tunnel and streets of Manhattan. During the drive, they saw people standing at intersections waving flags and cheering the volunteer efforts of those who responded to the call for help. The team had to grow accustomed to the constant wails of sirens from ambulances traveling by their temporary lodgings (unfurnished student housing units at New York University) to the nearby Office of the Medical Examiner. They spent a week, and most of their waking hours, sorting through records and examining human remains. Initially, there were not a lot of victims being brought in for identification, due of the amount of debris that needed to be cleared. Each of them got a chance to observe firsthand the overwhelming destruction at ground zero.

"In the beginning, we spent a lot of time developing the protocol for collecting and entering hundreds of charts full of ante-mortem dental data into a computerized system for matching unknown remains to reported missing persons," explained Golden, who led the California team. "In that area, I think we helped a considerable amount."

Upon returning to California, the forensic dentists got together to discuss what had worked well, and what it would be beneficial to do differently in the event of another domestic disaster.

"The memory of the event will always stay with us," Golden said. "The California Society of Forensic Dentists has teamed up with the Southern California Forensic Dental Study Group to examine the lessons learned from New York."

Jeffrey Burkes, DDS, chief forensic dentist for New York City’s Medical Examiner’s Office, led the largest forensic identification ever conducted in the United States. In the effort to identify victims of the tragedy, Burkes said, they had to develop new protocol as they went along, as things came up that were not anticipated due to the magnitude of the event.

"Our three-page protocol turned into 40 pages," Burkes said. "Volunteers had to read a list of rules stating they would not talk to the press. We had to check them to make sure no one brought in cameras or computer disks. After a while, I had people stop opening boxes of dental records that were delivered directly to the site because we had no way of knowing for sure what was inside."

The identification process continues to this day, as there is still not a one-to-one correlation between the list of missing persons and their dental records.

"The records are still coming in, for a variety of reasons," Burkes said. "Some of the people missing were foreign, and we had to send for their records, and often the records are in languages that then need to be translated."

From immediately after the attacks to the present day, dentists from across the country have aided the identification effort. Current statistics show that 518 victims have been identified solely through the use of forensic dentistry.

The underlying thread that held everyone together throughout the aftermath of the disaster was a sense of camaraderie, even between those who had never met.

"It meant so much not only to have forensic dentists from other states and countries working here, but also the emotional support provided and the feeling that every dentist in California would have come out to help, if called," Burkes said. "How can you thank someone for that?"

Author

Collette Knittel is CDA’s staff writer. She can be reached at collette@cda.org.