Kvaal’s method is one such method, which was initially applied to intraoral periapical radiographs and very recently on digital orthopantomographs (OPGs) for estimating the age of an individual. Hence dental pulp can be used as a parameter to assess the age of an individual even during later periods of life, when other methods cannot be employed. The size of the pulp decreases with age due to the deposition of the secondary dentin, and this is a continuous process that occurs throughout life. It is a well-known fact that both, the developmental and regressive changes to the tooth can be related to chronological age. The regressive changes in the pulp have also been related to age. The dental pulp is a delicate soft tissue enclosed within the confines of calcified structures, namely, dentin and enamel, and is well protected from the external tooth environment. In such circumstances, a radiographic approach if used, offers a relatively nondestructive method and eliminates the need for extraction of teeth. Any method used for age estimation in forensic sciences should clarify issues with significant legal and social ramifications for individuals as well as for the community. Various dental age calculation methods are described in the literature, but most of them offer a destructive approach in the form of extraction and preparation of microscopic sections of teeth, which may not be acceptable for ethical, religious, or scientific reasons. Age estimation constitutes an important factor in the identification of an individual in forensic odontology and search for optimal age estimation procedures has continued over the years until the present day.
The assessed age was then co-related with the actual age of the patient using the Student’s t test.įorensic odontology is one of the most unexplored and intriguing branches of forensic sciences.
Different regression formulae for all 6 teeth, 3 maxillary teeth, 3 mandibular teeth, and each of the individual teeth were derived and the age was assessed.
In order to compensate for the differences in magnification and angulation, various ratios were calculated and the mean of all ratios (M) was taken as the first predictor, while the difference between the mean of 2 width ratios and the mean of 2 length ratios (W – L) was taken as the second predictor. The pulp width and length from radiographs of 6 selected teeth, namely, maxillary central incisor, lateral incisor, and second premolar and mandibular lateral incisor, canine, and first premolar of either right or left side were measured using the RVG trophy software. The material consisted of the digital long-cone intraoral periapical radiographs from 50 subjects of either sex in the age group of 15–60 years, who were selected after evaluation for the set inclusion and exclusion criteria.
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