NCJ Number
217232
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2007 Pages: 146-150
Date Published
January 2007
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This study sought to establish correlations between chronological age in adults and clinical and radiological dental findings, alone or in combination.
Abstract
The study showed that clinical and radiological dental findings, which can be collected without special forensic science knowledge, could not be used as a single method for accurate age determination. The best age estimate achieved with clinical and radiological dental findings was only within 15 years of the person's actual age. Based on these findings, the authors advise that this method should only be used to support other methods of age estimation. The dental findings and orthopantomograms (OPGs) of 984 patients (ages 20-60 years), who attended a university dental clinic, were analyzed in this study. Caries prevalence was determined by using the DMF-T index at 28 teeth. In addition, the clinical and radiological findings at each tooth crown and root were recorded according to the actual status of the destruction and restoration. A total score for each dentition was calculated as a summation of the scores that represented the actual status of each tooth crown and root. The distance between the cemento-enamel junction and the alveolar bone margin was measured on the OPGs with the use of a 10-times magnifying glass. After the univariate correlation analysis of each variable with chronological age, an improvement of the estimation for age was attempted by combining different clinical and radiological variables. 5 tables, 1 figure, and 50 references