[Prosthetic restorations, dental root fillings and periodontal bone resorptions as a forensic-odontologic aid for determining the age above 18 years: A radiographic study of orthopantomograms from a group of teenagers and yount adults].
The human teeth are a valuable source of information concerning identification and age calculation in forensic sciences. Dental treatment often causes permanent alteration of the teeth, which is visible on radiographs. The correlation of prosthetic restorations, root canal fillings and periodontal bone loss with chronological age has not yet been used for determining the completed 18th year of life in teenagers and young adults, e. g. for legal and anthropological purposes. The aim of this study was to determine whether the evaluation of such findings on radiographs correlates with the chronological age in teenagers and young adults.


METHODS
The dental X-rays (orthopantomogram, OPG) of 1053 outpatients (age: 14 to 24 years) were avaluated. The values "prosthetically restored", "filled dental root", or "periodontal bone loss" were recorded for each tooth present. The data were then evaluated using statistical tools.


RESULTS
The correlation between the number of prosthetically restored teeth and the chronological age is high. The positive predictive value of determining an age of at least 18 years proved to be very high. However, these findings are rarely present in this age group. The number of endodontically treated teeth correlated less exactly with age. On the other hand, the determination of periodontal bone loss gave reasonable positive predictive values for the threshold value "chronological age of 18 years or more".


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides for the first time predictive values for the estimation whether a person is 18 years of age, based on the evaluation of teeth with prosthetic restorations, root canal fillings or periodontal bone loss on OPGs only. Whereas the number of patients with such findings is generally low in this age group, some of the positive findings can be used for age estimation as an adjunct to other sources of age calculation. The sole application of these criteria is not recommended, as sanitary conditions of the teeth depend on both social and individual circumstances. Therefore, the calculated values also reflect the culture of the sample studied. Finally, they are time-dependent and have to be compared to data from other populations. These results have some bearing on the field of forensic odontology.
Friedrich
Reinhard E
RE
Klinik und Poliklinik für Zahn-, Mund-, Kiefer- und Gesichtschirurgie (Nordwestdeutsche Kieferklinik).
v Maydell
Ljuba A
LA
Ulbricht
Carsten
C
Scheuer
Hanna A
HA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D016301:Alveolar Bone Loss / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology; D000848:Anodontia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology; D004245:DMF Index; D017266:Dental Prosthesis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003793:Dental Restoration, Permanent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005553:Forensic Dentistry / Q000379:methods*; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic