Abstract
Human dentition is widely used as a growth marker in dentistry, anthropology, archaeology, and forensic sciences, allowing comparison between individuals and populations. Adult dental age estimation is challenging for forensic odontologists because a variety of endogenous and exogenous factors influence dentition as age increases. This study aimed to assess the reliability of the pulp/tooth ratio in estimating the biological age of adults in Surabaya, Indonesia. Periapical radiographs of canines of males and females were involved in this study and the dental age assessment was performed following Cameriere’s method using Adobe Photoshop CS6. The statistical analysis of the present study was carried out using SPSS Statistics version 23.0. This study found a significant correlation between the pulp/tooth ratio and biological age. Females showed a higher level of reliability with a smaller MAE (5.34 years) than males (MAE= 7.40 years). Further, the middle adult group (31-50 years old) demonstrated greater reliability, MAE being 3.90 years. This study suggests that the pulp/tooth ratio has a high degree of reliability in estimating individual age and can be applied as a supporting method for age determination in adults in Indonesia. This method performs best for estimating dental age in females between the ages of 31 and 50 years. A future study of dental age estimation using the pulp/tooth ratio is suggested to develop a specific equation for the Indonesian population.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 8-16 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Bulletin of the International Association for Paleodontology |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Keywords
- Age estimation
- Chronological age
- Human rights
- Identification
- Legal identity