Abstract

LANDA, M.I.; GARAMENDI, P.M.; BOTELLA, M.C.  and  ALEMAN, I.. Usefulness of dental digital panoramic radiography in the estimation of age in adults. Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2008, n.52, pp.127-135. ISSN 1988-611X.

Estimation of age in individuals has received considerable attention in the forensic literature. The reduction of size of dental pulp cavity as a result of secondary dentin deposit with increasing age could be used as an indicator of age. This regression change, apart from morphological techniques, can also be analysed by radiological techniques. The aim of this work was to evaluate the reproducibility of the original method of Kvaal et al. on digital panoramic radiographs as well as to analyse the application of age estimation formulae reported in the literature. Orthopantomograms (OPGs) of 100 patients aged between 14 and 60 years old from a private radiology department in Bilbao were selected at random. According to the reported technique three mandibular teeth were evaluated in each orthopantomogram. The results showed that the method reported by Kvaal at al. cannot be applied to direct digital OPGs. The values of age estimation obtained using regression formulae analysed on digital images were so distant from the real ages that this method must be discouraged as being a reliable one to estimate age on a direct digital OPGs sample.

Keywords : age estimation; dental orthopantomograms; digital radiology; secondary dentin.

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