Abstract

DRUSINI, A.G.. The Coronal Pulp Cavity Index: A Forensic Tool for Age Determination in Human Adults. Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2008, n.53-54, pp.235-249. ISSN 1988-611X.

The correlation between the reduction of the coronal pulp cavity and the chronological age was examined in a sample of 846 intact teeth from 433 individuals of known age and sex. Panoramic (rotational) radiography was used to measure the length (mm) of the tooth crown (CL=coronal length) and the length (mm) of the coronal pulp cavity (CPCL=coronal pulp cavity length). The tooth-coronal index (TCI) after Ikeda et al. (1985) was computed for each tooth and regressed on the real age of the sample. The correlation coefficients ranged from -0.92 (molars, combined sample, right side) to -0.87 (female molars), with a S.E. of the estimate ranging from 5.88 to 6.66 years. Correlations were slightly higher in males than females. The obtained equations allowed estimation of age in a sample of 100 teeth of both sexes (not used for the regression) with an error of ± 5 years in 81.4% of cases for the male molars. This study shows the potential value of a little-known aging method, which can be easily used to estimate age both in living individuals and skeletal material of unknown age in a forensic context.

Keywords : Coronal pulp cavity index; age; adults; forensic odontology.

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