Luke Perry and Shannon Doherty of 90210 both died in their early 50's

Was Dental Work Involved?

I saw this image above on my Facebook feed earlier in the week and it struck me.

Were Brenda and Dylan from the 90’s hit show 90210 really dead?

You see it’s important to remember that I lived outside of the US since mid-2018 and so I missed both of their passings.

I was struggling myself at the time when they both passed and so I was more in survival mode and didn’t really have the time or motivation to stay up with US pop culture.

And so it came as an honest shock when I saw that two of the biggest stars of the 1990s were gone.

I still remember being a young high school student in New York sitting in the kitchen of my mother’s house and watching this show religiously every week. It was the glamorous life I hoped to lead one day (note I was an unfashionable dork at the time).

Anyway I looked it up and it was true…. both died before 55 despite having seemingly very good biomechanics while they were on the show.

It reminded me a bit of the story of Matthew Perry dying, which i’d already written about earlier.

I decided I needed to dig in.

About Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered on Fox in October 1990 and became one of the defining cultural events of the decade.

The show followed Brenda and her twin brother Brandon Walsh, who moved from Minnesota to attend high school in Beverly Hills, navigating the wealthy and beautiful world they’d landed in. It ran for ten seasons and launched careers that defined a generation.

The cast became genuine superstars. Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Ian Ziering — all household names.

But two actors stood above the rest in terms of cultural impact: Luke Perry, who played brooding bad-boy Dylan McKay, and Shannen Doherty, who played lead character Brenda Walsh.

Their chemistry on screen made the show.

Their real-life turbulence kept it in the tabloids.

Shannen was known for feuds with cast members and being difficult to the point that the producers wanted her off the show.

Luke, on the other hand, was typically in the media for his massive teen-idol status.

The Brenda & Dylan love story

Brenda falling in love with “bad boy” Dylan McKay was the central romantic engine of the early show — she lost her virginity to him, survived a robbery with him, navigated her first real heartbreak through him.

Perry and Doherty had a screen chemistry that felt real because it was raw — two young actors with enormous energy and presence, playing out a teenage love story that millions of people watched every week.

It was an on-screen relationship that people remembered for decades. And both of the people who made it happen are now gone.

They both passed away very young

Luke Perry, known best for his role as Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills 90210, died on March 4, 2019, after suffering a massive stroke.

He was just 52 years old.

The cause was attributed to a blood clot blocking a blood vessel, cutting off blood flow and oxygen to his brain. His sudden death left loved ones stunned — by all accounts he had seemed to be in good health prior to his passing.

His autopsy pointed to atherosclerosis — a buildup of plaque in the arteries — as the primary driver, combined with family history. His father had died at 35 from a heart attack. The medical establishment chalked it up to genetics and diet.

Nobody asked whether there was a structural reason his cardiovascular system was under that kind of pressure at 52.

Then Shannen.

She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, went into remission two years later, then announced in 2020 that the cancer had returned as stage 4.

By 2023, it had spread to her brain and bones. She underwent brain surgery, multiple rounds of radiation, and chemotherapy infusions delivered through ports implanted in her chest.

She died on July 13, 2024 at her home in Malibu, California. She was 53.

Two people from the same show. Dead within five years of each other. Neither made it past 53.

Was dental work involved in Luke’s case?

There is no smoking gun here.

For Luke Perry, I haven’t found documented evidence of major cosmetic dental intervention.

When you look at his teeth in his photo above (probably in his 20’s) you can see that the back teeth come in a bit like a horseshoe.

And then later when you see him in this photo that was probably around age 50 you can see that the teeth still do come in.

Which to me shows that he never fixed it with dental work. As a dentist could easily convince someone to fix this ‘imperfect smile’ with something like braces or a palate expander.

However, Luke, seems to have chosen not to do that. Which coincides with what I know of his personality (ie. he wasn’t very superficially-driven and rather was known for being low key and grounded).

So I think what we are seeing with Luke is biomechanical collapse the old fashioned way (ie. not dentistry-induced). Rather just “au naturel”.

How about for Shannen’s case?

Shannen did appear to have braces when she was a freshmen in high school back in 1986 as you see in the pic above (you can find the original here).

And her story lines up with what I think you’ll find with lots of cases where someone had braces in their teens.

They seem to be healthy and even attractice for some period of time but then start to head downhill and age very rapidly a lot sooner than others.

For example in this image in 2024 (below) she already looks a lot different than wwhen she was on the show.

In general i’d say that her skeleton and skull had evolved in a more unnatural way than what we saw with Luke Perry.

Plus she had a history, even while on 90210, of being very difficult. Which also points to something unnatural going on as I hear something similar from many folks that had braces as teens.

So to conclude I do think that the braces as a teen played a key role in her decline and eventual death later on.

It was the damage to the foundation early on that led to an eventual collapse.

Closing thoughts

Two of the most recognizable faces of the 1990s, both dead before 55.

Luke Perry’s stroke gets attributed to genetics and cholesterol. Shannen Doherty’s cancer gets attributed to delayed diagnosis and bad luck. Both explanations are incomplete.

When I look at where people’s skulls and spinal structures were by the time these illnesses hit, I see the same thing I always see — a body that had been under sustained structural pressure for years before the disease manifested.

A skull deflating. A spine compensating. The health being a function of those two things.

The body doesn’t lie. The structure always tells the story before the diagnosis does.

Two icons of a generation. Gone too soon.