Dr. Shanon Kirchhoff recently attended a training session at Jefferson City for Missouri's Disaster Dental Identification Team.

The DDIT is made up of 52 volunteers trained to perform forensic identification in the event of a mass disaster, such as airline disasters or bombings. The group is a joint mission of the Missouri Dental Association, Missouri Department of Health and the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency.

Dental forensic identification has long been the foundation of positive identification in disaster situations.

The recent training session was conducted by Drs. Michael Graham, medical examiner of St. Louis, and Jay Dix, medical examiner of Columbia.