UNAIR NEWS – Forensic Studies Program of Postgraduate School Universitas Airlangga held a seminar and workshop, 2nd Forensic Science Week, on application of multidisciplinary science on Forensics in Indonesia. The event lasted for three days, from Friday-Sunday, October 11-13, 2019.
The event attended by professionals and academics throughout Indonesia was held in several locations, at the Empire Palace Hotel Surabaya, Institute of Tropical Disease (ITD), Dr. Soetomo, and UNAIR Postgraduate School Building.
Forensics is a field synonymous with medicine. However, in practice, the multidisciplinary application of science cannot be avoided in forensics. Therefore, the theme of multidisciplinary science in the field of forensics was chosen.
Various fields involved in forensics besides medicine include the fields of law, anthropology, dentistry, and molecular biology. Because it is multidisciplinary, the experts speaking in the event were from various fields. They were police, legal experts, doctors, and dentists speaking of their knowledge and relevance to forensics.
DNA workshop was held on Friday, a multidisciplinary seminar was held on Saturday. On Sunday, odontology, anthropology and DVI workshops were held.
One of the workshops was on the age estimation odontology workshop with Image J software. This workshop was held at UNAIR Postgraduate Building. The expert speaker was Prof. Dr. Mieke Syvia Margaretha MA Ruth drg., MS., Sp. OF (K).
Odontology is important in forensics because teeth are one part of the human body that lasts longer than any other organs and tissues. Teeth are used in primary identification to identify of victim’s identity.
Primary identification can be done in three ways, fingerprint identification, dental identification, and DNA identification. Generally, the main thing is fingerprint identification. However, if fingerprint identification is not possible; for example when the victim’s finger is burned, dental identification is carried out. If dental identification is not possible or does not provide satisfactory results, then DNA identification is carried out.
Compared to DNA identification, dental identification is relatively easy and inexpensive. As technology advances, software is used to analyze the shape, size, and ratio of x-ray images of victims’ teeth. Thus, it can be estimated the age of the victim.
This forensic seminar and workshops have entered its second year. In Indonesia, forensic seminars and workshops are still rare. The forensic seminar and workshops were expected to update knowledge of professionals in the world of forensics and provide an overview for those interested in studying the forensic field. (*)
Author: Fida Aifiya
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
