Hollywood, crime labs, museums, wildlife, and shark research all have one thing in common—dentistry.
By Genni Burkhart, Editor
According to the Health Policy Institute (HPI), more than 200,000 dentists are practicing across the United States. While most will spend their careers in private practice, hospitals, community clinics, or academia, the profession isn't limited to the operatory alone. Dentists also help solve criminal cases, care for endangered wildlife, curate museum collections, create teeth for Hollywood productions, and study sharks to learn more about tooth regeneration.
These careers may sound rather uncommon, but they build on the same formal dental education as that of practicing dentists. They also offer an excellent perspective on just how broad dentistry actually is, taking the profession in less traditional, yet fascinating directions.
1. Hollywood's Tooth Maker
While the first person on this list isn't a dentist, he is a formally trained dental technician whose work has become part of Hollywood history. After training in dental technology in the United Kingdom, Gary Archer received a request to create dentures for Mrs. Doubtfire. That project launched his career designing custom dental prosthetics for hundreds of film and television productions, including Austin Powers, Blade, Interview With the Vampire, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Some of Hollywood's most memorable characters are recognized as much for their teeth as their costumes. A crooked grin, terrifying fangs, or years of convincing neglect become part of the performance, helping audiences believe the character from the moment they appear on screen. Archer's work has done exactly that for hundreds of productions, creating prosthetics that feel so natural they simply become part of the story.
2. Dentistry Goes to the Zoo
Dr. Peter Emily, DDS, Hon AVDC, AVD, actually planned to become a veterinarian before choosing dentistry. After earning his DDS from Creighton University School of Dentistry and completing advanced training in periodontology, pathology, restorative dentistry, and radiology, he found a way to combine both passions in a meaningful career unlike any other.
For more than 60 years, Dr. Emily's patients included all kinds of animals, from gorillas and elephants to lions, tigers, and bears. He also served as the dental consultant for the Denver Zoo, repaired broken beaks on eagles, parrots, and owls, and coined the term "beakistry." Dr. Emily taught the very first elective course in animal dentistry at Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, authored four textbooks, including Zoo and Wild Animal Dentistry, and founded the Peter Emily International Veterinary Dental Foundation (PEIVDF), which continues to train veterinarians worldwide.
Dr. Emily passed away in 2022 at the age of 90. Today, his influence continues through the animals he cared for, the veterinarians he trained, and the PEIVDF, which promotes the oral health of domestic and captive animals around the world.
3. Oral Health Evidence: Fact and Fiction
Few dentists spend their careers helping to identify disaster victims or influencing criminal investigations, only to then add "fiction writer" to their credentials. Dr. Mary Bush earned her DDS from the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine and built a career in one of dentistry's most unusual specialties, forensic odontology.
Throughout her career, Dr. Bush has helped identify victims through dental records while advancing new methods for analyzing the materials used in fillings, crowns, and dentures. However, some of her most influential work challenged the reliability of bite-mark evidence, helping to move forensic dentistry toward stronger scientific standards. Those experiences eventually inspired her to become an author. She wrote the crime novel, A Simple Lie, where the science behind forensic dentistry became the foundation for a psychological fiction thriller.
4. Understanding History Through Teeth
Perhaps the most specialized career on this list belongs to Dr. Alan H. Goodman, PhD. After earning a bachelor's degree in zoology and a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts, followed by postdoctoral research in stress physiology at Duke University and international nutrition at Cornell University, he built a career demonstrating just how much a single tooth can reveal about human history.
Dr. Goodman's research has also changed the way anthropologists study ancient populations. By analyzing tooth enamel and its chemical composition, he helped uncover evidence of childhood nutrition, disease, environmental pollution, migration, and the biological effects of poverty and inequality. Furthermore, his work contributed to research at New York City's African Burial Ground, a national monument preserving the remains of thousands of enslaved Africans, where teeth helped document the lasting biological effects of enslavement. Together, those discoveries expanded what scientists can learn from a single tooth.
5. Looking to the Sea for Tooth Regeneration
No career on this list lands further away from the operatory than the one of Dr. Gareth J. Fraser, PhD. After earning his doctorate in evolutionary developmental biology at the University of Cambridge, he established a research laboratory at the University of Florida dedicated to understanding how teeth develop, evolve, and regenerate across vertebrate species.
Sharks, rays, skates, and even ghost sharks have become among Dr. Fraser's most important research subjects because they continually replace their teeth throughout their lives. His laboratory is identifying the genetic signals that control tooth development and regeneration, knowledge that could one day help scientists stimulate the growth of new human teeth rather than simply replacing those that are lost. Every discovery also expands our understanding of craniofacial development, stem cells, and regenerative medicine, making this one of dentistry's most promising areas of research.
If you want to learn more about Dr. Fraser's work or follow along with his research, you can visit his website here.
6. Dental Preservationist
Every profession has its historians. In dentistry, those historians are sometimes dentists themselves. Dr. R. Scott Swank DDS, MS, MBA, FACD earned his DDS from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry before completing graduate education and pursuing one of the profession's most unusual career paths. Since 1997, he has served as curator of the Dr. Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore, Maryland, the congressionally designated official museum of the dental profession and a Smithsonian Affiliate.
For nearly three decades, Dr. Swank has cared for more than 50,000 artifacts documenting centuries of dental history, including George Washington's ivory dentures, Queen Victoria's personal dental instruments, and many historical innovations that have transformed oral healthcare. He has also researched, written, and curated exhibitions that place those collections into historical context, preserving the evidence behind many of dentistry's greatest discoveries. As a result, Dr. Swank's work has created a lasting record of the profession's evolution, giving educators, researchers, students, and practicing dentists a better understanding of how modern techniques, materials, and standards have evolved over time.
In Conclusion
For most dentists, they'll spend their careers caring for patients in traditional clinical settings. It's meaningful work that improves patients' lives every day. As a profession, however, dentistry reaches far beyond the operatory. It advances scientific discovery, strengthens forensic investigations, expands our understanding of human history, improves the health of endangered wildlife, inspires regenerative research, preserves history, and even shapes some of Hollywood's most memorable characters. These are just a few examples of how dentistry continues to improve lives and influence society in less predictable, yet impactful ways.
Author: With over 16 years as a published journalist, editor, and writer, Genni Burkhart's career has spanned politics, healthcare, law, business finance, technology, and news. She resides in Northern Colorado, where she works as the editor-in-chief of the Incisor at DOCS Education.
