SCOTTISH dental students have become the first in the UK to be trained using specially embalmed bodies.

Students at Dundee University will carry out surgical dental treatment on the corpses as part of their course work, following a pilot project in the university's School of Dentistry.

The bodies are being donated for training and research through the university's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID), and will be embalmed using the Thiel method which leaves them with more life-like properties than standard embalming.

The pilot project was completed by third-year dentistry students and the scheme will now be more widely used for teaching.

Dr Christine Hanson, associate specialist in Oral Surgery at the university, led the pilot scheme and has now welcomed the introduction of hands-on experience for all students.

She said: "The Thiel bodies give us an excellent and very lifelike way of training dentists before they have live patients.

"It is extremely difficult to give dental students an opportunity to practise in a way that gives them a realistic experience.

"Using simulators or mannequins, or even animal heads, does not offer the same experience."

Professor Sue Black and her colleagues at CAHID, who featured in the BBC series History Cold Case, have been at the forefront of adopting the Thiel method of embalming.

She said: "The Thiel method gives surgeons, dentists, students and medical researchers a more realistic method of testing techniques, practising procedures and developing new approaches."

The university has launched a major fundraising campaign to build a new morgue to support the Thiel method. It aims to raise £1 million towards the cost of the project, with the university having already committed another £1m.