Otto Warmbier’s parents claimed that his bottom teeth looked as though someone had taken pliers and rearranged them when he returned from North Korea. They said that his dental injuries showed that he was tortured while he was held captive in the country. While Otto Warmbier’s dentists verified the injuries saying that his teeth had been moved backward towards his mouth, the coroner said that there was no evidence of trauma to the teeth.
It is very tragic what happened to Otto Warmbier and how his life ended. The decision he made to visit North Korea turned out to be the worst decision he made because that visit to the country cost him his freedom and eventually his life as well. He was only 22 years old when he traveled to North Korea in December 2015 as a part of a guided tour group. He didn’t live to complete his 23rd year after that.
At the time of his departure from the country, Otto Warmbier was arrested and taken into custody by North Korean officials at the airport for the supposed crime of stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel. He was then sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016. He was detained for about 17 months in the country before he was returned to the United States of America. He faced several injuries to his leg and teeth while he was held captive there.
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Otto Warmbier’s Teeth Before and After: Was His Bottom Teeth Rearranged?
Otto Warmbier did not survive for long after his visit to North Korea. The state he was in when he returned, there was no hope that he would live his life as he lived previously but his parents were not expecting that he would die either. So, they were devastated when he died of severe brain damage resulting from the lack of oxygen. They claimed that it was the mistreatment that he faced in North Korea which resulted in his death. They seemed to think that the scars on his body and his crooked teeth were evidence of the abuse he faced.
Otto Warmbier suffered several injuries to his teeth while he was held captive by North Korea.
Image Source: BBC
Fred and Cindy Warmbier filed a lawsuit against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, charging the North Korean government with “hostage-taking, illegal detention, torture, and killing of a young American tourist” in order “to extract various concessions from the United States government.” They claimed that he had suffered from several injuries to his foot and his teeth.
In support of the lawsuit filed against North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, Otto Warmbier’s parents claimed that it was unbelievable to them that North Korea would send Otto home as a vegetable, with scars on his body and crooked teeth. They said that their son had been intentionally beaten and tortured while he was in captivity.
They stated in the complaint that he had “returned destroyed in a state of unresponsive wakefulness with a devastating brain injury” and also “had a large scar on his left foot and traumatic dental injuries”, all of which happened due to the torture he received in North Korea. His teeth were supposedly straight before he suffered dental injuries.
In an interview with Fox, Otto Warmbier’s parents gave details about the state he was in when he returned to America,
Otto was on the stretcher … and was jerking violently, making these inhuman sounds. He was blind. He was deaf. It looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth.
Otto Warmbier’s Bottom Teeth Were Moved Backward Towards the Tongue!
Their claims were corroborated by the declarations of Otto Warmbier‘s pediatric dentist, the dentist he transferred to as an adult, and the neurologist who cared for him after his return to America. Of the state of Otto’s teeth before, Dr. Murray Dock, a pediatric dentist based in Cincinnati, Ohio, (he was Otto’s dentist from 2011 to 2013) said,
I remember Otto as having straight teeth without any significant misalignment or crowding.
Otto Warmbier’s teeth were moved backward towards the tongue according to his dentists.
Image Source: People
But after he returned from North Korea, he seemed to have suffered some dental injuries as per his declaration. He stated that he observed substantial differences in the position of Otto’s bottom four middle-most teeth after reviewing his post-mortem dental images. They were moved backward towards the tongue. According to him, the change in his teeth was not a result of natural occurrence and that such change would only be caused by some sort of impact.
Another dentist Todd Williams (he was Otto’s dentist from 2014 to 2015) declared that Otto had excellent teeth with an excellent bite between the upper and lower teeth before he traveled to North Korea but his post-mortem dental images showed that some of his teeth were “positioned towards the back of his mouth.” He also agreed with Dr. Dock in that the teeth were positioned toward the back of his mouth and that some force was obviously applied to them. He said that it was very unusual for a previously healthy young dental patient.
Coroner Dispute Claims That Otto Warmbier’s Teeth Were Damaged!
While the dentists verified the claims that Otto Warmbier had suffered dental injuries, the Hamilton County coroner said that she found no evidence of such injuries. Dr. Lakshmi Kode Sammarco said,
There is no evidence of trauma to the lower teeth or mandible on imaging or by physical examination. Now that being said, I will tell you that the forensic dentist did let me know that the front incisors often will have a rounded root and they will sometimes twist as they’re developing, but I’m not an expert on that. But I can tell you that we didn’t see any evidence of trauma to the teeth.
