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UTGSM Offers Master of Science in Forensic Dentistry
The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine announces a Master of Dental Science degree program in Forensic Dentistry that will begin in fall 2020. Graduates of a College of Dentistry program may apply.
Forensic dentistry is the application of dental knowledge to answer all medico-legal questions involving dentition and maxillofacial structures. The two-year Master's program curriculum is designed to provide dentists interested in forensics with the education, training and experience required to clinically perform and produce expert opinions in cases involving single, multiple and mass disaster dental identification in the medical examiner office; assess dental age; and recognize human abuse and patterned injury in accordance with the Standards and Guidelines of the American Board of Forensic Odontology. Graduates will be prepared to pursue national and international forensics careers.
The UT Graduate School of Medicine is partnering with the Knox County Regional Forensic Center (RFC) and the Cumberland Forest Decomposition Facility as a part of the educational experience and training. Students will learn how the anthropologist recovers and analyzes decomposed and skeletal remains in clandestine and crime scene situations. Special training involves discovery and archaeological excavation of skeletal and dental remains followed by laboratory interpretation of peri-mortem ballistic, blunt and sharp-force injury. As part of the program, students with the Division of Forensic Dentistry faculty and staff, will provide comprehensive dental and anthropological services to the Knox County Medical Examiner's Office as well as to outside individuals, organizations and agencies.
The Master's degree in Forensic Dentistry will be research focused, educating the forensic dentist in qualitative and quantitative research protocols and design methodology. A goal of the program is to produce valuable forensic research both independently and in collaboration with other educational and research institutions.
Forensic Dentistry is a division in the Department of General Dentistry at the UT Graduate School of Medicine. Faculty for the program include: James M. Lewis, DMD, D-ABFO (Director); Murray K. Marks, PhD, D-ABFA; Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, MD, PhD, D-ABFP (Chief Medical Examiner, Knox County Regional Forensic Center); Paula C. Brumit, DDS, D-ABFO; Thomas J. David, DDS, D-ABFO; Richard A. Weems DMD, MS, D-ABFO; and Peter W. Loomis, DDS, D-ABFO. The Division of Forensics is supported by Administrative Assistant, Martha Gale.
The Master's of Dental Science degree will be conferred by the UT College of Graduate Health Sciences upon fulfillment of all program requirements, production and acceptance of a thesis, and successful defense of the independent research effort. Application information will be available upon final approval of the program at http://gsm.utmck.edu/forensics. Visit today for more information regarding continuing education and programs offered by the Division of Forensics.
Posted: June 3, 2020