All members of your office practices forensic dentistry every day. Most dental professionals understand that forensic dentistry is body identification by dental means, but often there is confusion about how an individual office responds to an actual case. In addition, when there is a disaster with massive fatalities, while others in the community may contribute with money and food, dental professionals have very substantive talents that can be used in the resolution of the disaster. Therefore, every dental professional needs to be ready to serve on a dental disaster team. Even though the process of the dental identification is the same as that used in the day-to-day body identification the circumstances surrounding the disaster produces increased demand on the dental disaster team members. For example, some the dental team members may be assigned to the site to aid in the collection of bodies and body parts. A second team must be ready to function in the dental morgue, performing the actual postmortem, dental examination on the victims. A third team will contact the victims’ dentist(s) to obtain the antemortem dental records. Finally a fourth team needs to place the postmortem and antemortem dental data on the computer to aid in the identification process. This course will take the participant through the preparation, the seventeen days of the actual resolution, the post-resolution actions, the preparation for trial, and a day in Denver that involved the 167 victims who died as a direct result of the truck-bomb explosion in the Oklahoma City disaster. The course will also look at other disasters and will address the steps needed to prepare for such events. In deference to the usual scientific presentation, this course will be given in the first person and will document not just the events, but also the impact on the individuals of the dental team. Each participant will be given the opportunity to perform body identification by dental means.

Forensic dentistry is also concerned with recognizing the pattern injury on a child or adult that represents evidence of child abuse or spousal abuse. This course covers not only the documentation of evidence, but also gives the dental professionals information on reporting procedures. Forensic dentistry deals with recognizing and defining a bite mark on deceased victims. The procedures that are conducted to collect the necessary postmortem evidence that may be useful for the final analysis will be addressed. Steps in collection of evidence on the suspects who may be the possible assailant will also be outlined. The final analyses using case presentations will demonstrate the use of bite mark testimony. Both the strengths and the weaknesses of bite mark analyses will be discussed.

Finally, the definitions and roles of the fact witness and the expert witness will be considered. Preparing for deposition and/or court appearance will be addressed.

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