Contact Session of CFO

Centre for Forensic Odontology, is an academic and research Centre under Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal. The Centre conducts the first blended programme of the University, Certificate Course in Forensic Odontology as a collaborative project of the Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore and the Department of Forensic Medicine, Kasturba Medical College Mangalore. The blended modules involves 6 months of online sessions in the form of video lectures, audio content, word documents, links, pdf documents, assignments and online tests. In continuation with the 6 month online module, an intensive, contact session was conducted from 3rd December 2018 to 7th December 2018 at the Mangalore Campus. Dr. Nitin Agrawal and Dr. Samarika Dahal both working presently as Lecturer in Department of Dentistry, Maharajgunj Medical Campus, Institute of Medicine, Katmandu, Nepal, were the international resource persons for the programme. They are qualified forensic experts from University of Dundee and have vast experience in the field of Forensic Odontology by being constantly involved in solving various air crash and natural disaster cases in Nepal and in various other countries. The programme was well received with 15 participants from various institutes across India.

December 18, 2018

The contact session involved the extensive hands on  training on Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) and the protocols involved for the same. The emphasis was given on the odontological aspects of building the biological profile of skeletal remains recovered for comparative dental identification. The workshop included training on exhumation, extraction of antemortem data from interviews, postmortem dental examination, collection of evidence from the scene of disaster, comparative dental identification etc. The session also highlighted the  age estimation using CBCT, sex determination using hand wrist radiographs and bitemark analysis using overlays.

Dr. Suresh Shetty, Professor and Head of Department of Forensic Medicine (state Medicolegal consultant) and his team including Dr Jagadish Rao and Dr Pavanchand Shetty, both district Medicolegal consultants, apprised the participants in Autopsy, importance of Legal issues involved in Forensics, court room protocols and a hands-on exercise on missing person identification.  

The Valedictory programme held on 6th December, 2018 at the Medical education unit, KMC, Mangalore precided over by  Dr. M Venkatraya Prabhu, Dean, KMC, Mangalore and Dr. Dilip G Naik, Dean MCODS, Mangalore was the guest of honour. The function began with a welcome note by Dr.Srikant N., coordinator of the Centre for Forensic Odontology. The chief guest Dr. M Venkatraya Prabhu, Dean, KMC, Mangalore, emphasized the importance of the forensic odontology and related fields and how they are interconnected from a long time. Dr.Dilip G Naik emphasized the importance of collaboration between different institutes in research and academia. The function ended by distribution of certificates to the eligible candidates. The candidates gave a positive feedback about the online and offline course.

About the course

The Centre for Forensic Odontology runs an online as well as blended module of the Certificate Course in Forensic Odontology. Interested candidates may contact the coordinator at forensic.odontology@manipal.edu