Marcel Morejon kindly sent me a recent article by Newsmax in which author and dental surgeon Dr John Sottosanti describes seeing a lower dental line of teeth on the Shroud image. Sottosanti says that he shared his findings with a dental research associate who said “I agree, I see the exact same thing”.
According to Dr. John Sottosanti, a previously unnoticed detail on the Shroud of Turin could point to internal anatomical features, and even raise the possibility of scientific evidence of the resurrection. Sottosanti, a board-certified oral surgeon and author of the memoir ‘Mortal Adhesions’ claimed that he has identified the faint outline of human teeth while analysing the Shroud of Turin, possibly those of Jesus Christ, which could have been caused by “The light produced at the resurrection.”
Sottosanti says new high-definition images allowed him to spot something others had missed: faint images of what dentists call the incisal plane, the line connecting the tips of the lower teeth. “You shouldn’t see a horizontal line across the Shroud’s vertical threads” Sottosanti explained. “But that’s exactly what I saw, the outline of the lower teeth.”
The discovery suggests that whatever created the Shroud’s image may have imprinted not only surface details but also internal anatomical structures. To confirm his findings, Sottosanti shared the images with a colleague, a dental researcher and author of more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, who said in response: “Absolutely, I see the exact same thing.”
Sottosanti added “Nobody knows what caused it. So we have to say, if we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that at the point of resurrection there was a light source that maybe we don’t even understand. It was almost X-ray like, and it actually imprinted those lower teeth on the shroud. This leads one to believe that maybe the resurrection and the light produced at the resurrection could have caused this.”
Other observations of the ‘X-Ray Effect’
It’s interesting that the Newsmax article refers to this as a ‘previously unnoticed detail’. However as Solomon so wisely says in Ecclesiastes “there is nothing new under the sun”. Certainly not in Shroud studies.
The X-Ray effect has been noticed and studied for some time. David Ford of Good Shepherd films recently produced a YouTube video which looks at this feature especially regarding the hands which look abnormally long and thin. Ford X-Rayed his own hand with the thumb tucked behind the palm and noted that it shows a dark patch on the upper image which tapers and finishes at the third finger. This ‘hidden thumb image’ also appears on the Shroud image hand in an identical position, thus pointing to this X-Ray effect.
Ford points out that he based his experiment on the same one done earlier by Dr. John Jackson which had the same results. This all points to another surprising aspect of the nature of the image itself, as we already know that image itself is a negative image and when reversed is a positive image (apart from the blood which is vice-versa).
Going back even further April 1994, an article titled ‘Special Feature’ edited by Ian Wilson for BSTS newsletter issue number 37 looked in depth at the possibility of an X-Ray effect in the Shroud image. He says“For many years researchers have been puzzled by the striking X-Ray appearance of certain features of the Shroud. In particular there seems a very skeletal appearance of the hands as observed by among others, Dr.Giles Carter and Dr.John Jackson in the USA and Dr.Allan Mills of Leicester University in the UK”.
The article goes on to describe the words and work of Dr.Alan Whanger, who using his Polarized Overlay Technique compared 3D enhancements with X-Rays of hands and skull. He said that his findings had been reviewed by a number of physicians including three professors of radiology who all immediately agreed that this shows (what he calls) an autoradiograph effect and that these new detailed images show clearly that the reason for the appearance of the very long fingers and the wide eyes is the underlying skeletal image.
Interestingly Whanger says “most of the physicians who have seen the evidence have said that they have no explanation for it. However Dr Thaddeus Trenn of the University of Toronto theorised that “If enough energy was put into the atoms of the body to overcome the force that holds the nuclei together, it would produce what he called ..weak dematerialisation….”
Whanger said that if Trenn’s theory was correct it would also ‘produce new carbon 14. The effect of this would be that in the case of any carbon dating, the linen would appear significantly younger than its true age”.
