A survey by Edward Herschaft and Robert Rasmussen published in 1978 found that only half of U.S. dental schools presented any information on forensic dentistry. The schools that did present such information did not include it as a permanent part of the curriculum. In 1990, the Journal of Dental Education published curriculum guidelines developed jointly by the Sections of Oral Diagnosis/Oral Medicine and Pathology. These guidelines recommended that education in forensic dentistry be "contained in a separate, required course." Ideally, this course would be placed in the third or fourth year of the dental curriculum. The guidelines stated that the "ability to display both wet and dry laboratory specimens is desirable." As an example of the implementation of these guidelines, the current article describes the forensic dentistry portion of the curriculum of the Southern Illinois School of Dental Medicine. A 2-hour lecture on bioterrorism is part of the second-year general pathology course. A 2-hour lecture on forensic dentistry is also part of the junior oral pathology course. Independent of a formal course, third-year students participate in a training exercise on the identification of mass disaster victims through dental analysis. A mock transportation disaster was chosen because such events constitute the majority of cases in which forensic dentistry is required for identification. Also, training in identification impresses on students the importance of accurate documentation in dental records. 12 references