RSDM Doc Offers Forensic Course As Continuing Dental Education Program

Dr. Harry Zohn teaches forensic courses at RSDM.

After 9/11, Dr. Harry Zohn saw a dramatic shift in the field of forensic dentistry.

“The emphasis changed from litigation and crime scenes to large-scale disasters,’’ explains Zohn, who teaches a forensic dentistry course at RSDM that is one of only a handful for predoctoral students in the nation. “The world became much smaller. It’s not just about local crime anymore, it’s global.”

In an effort to expand awareness of forensic dentistry — and hopefully broaden the pool of potential volunteers during catastrophes and national emergencies — RSDM is opening up its forensics course to dental health care professionals. The course centers around the many ways in which dental remains, dental records and bite marks can be used as crime-solving information. It also explores how forensic dentistry helps law enforcement ID disaster victims.

Zohn, a practitioner at Rutgers Health University Dental Associates, RSDM's faculty practice, hopes the course will also serve as a refresher to NJ Disaster Victims Identification Team members who are dental professionals. It’s also his goal for dental professionals who enroll to receive credit from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. The continuing dental education/elective course, which begins in January, will be open to dental healthcare professionals. For information on registration visit www. sdm.rutgers.edu/CDE or contact Janice Gibbs, RSDM Director of Continuing Dental Education, at gibbs@sdm.rutgers.edu.

In addition to the more traditional forensics course, Zohn also teaches one of the few, if not the only, dental forensics classes where students shadow law-enforcement officials at the Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s office to watch an autopsy and glimpse how dental forensics are used in the field. The first class is a prerequisite for the class where students observe the medical examiner.