Indore (Madhya Pradesh): “Just as our fingerprints and DNA, our teeth, too have unique identification. Teeth help in identifying the body of any accident victim or in any case of suspected death,” Ahmedabad’s Forensic Odontology expert, Dr Jaishankar Pillai, said. He was addressing a seminar, ‘Forensic Dentistry’ organised by the Government Dental College on Sunday.
Dr Pillai said interest in forensic odontology had been increasing among doctors and patients as it was a challenging field and gave a chance to handle different cases.
“Forensic dental science is important for the legal system as it helps in identification of criminals in any case or the identification of a body. We can also learn about the age of anyone on the basis of his teeth as every tooth has stages and we can calculate the age. Moreover, it can help in sex identification of any decayed body,” he added.
Dr Pillai also spoke of the ways of making forensic dentistry a career.
Similarly, KEM College, Mumbai’s Dr Hemlata Pandey also discussed about the emerging field of forensic dentistry and informed the students that the field was quite new in our country. “We started talking about forensic dentistry just about 10 years ago. Many experts have got training in other countries and are now implementing it in our countries. Students can opt for it if they want some thrill in their work and they can go for it instead of clinical dentistry,” Dr Pandey said.
Principal of Government Dental College Dr Deshraj Jain said they were organising the seminars to provide knowledge to the students about updates in the field of dentistry which also helps them in choosing their expertise.
A large number of students and teachers participated in the seminar.
