title: Usefulness of combining clinical and radiological dental findings for a more accurate noninvasive age estimation.
abstract: The aim of this study was to establish correlations of clinical and radiological dental findings, alone or in combination, with chronological age in adults. Dental findings and orthopantomograms of 984 patients (aged 20-60 years; 524 females/460 males) were analyzed. DMF-T index and distance (alveolar bone level, ABL) between cemento-enamel junction and alveolar bone margin were recorded. Additionally, clinical and radiological findings at each tooth crown and root were collected according to the actual status of destruction and restoration, and a total score for each dentition (TSD) was calculated. After univariate correlation analysis, correlation coefficients for ABL and TSD were improved by using square root (sqrt). However, the determination accuracy was still not satisfactory; 90% of the residuals were in the range of about +/-10. The present study showed that clinical and radiological dental findings could not be used, not even in combination, for accurate age estimation as a single method, but that they could support other methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Restorative Dentistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, D-55131 Mainz, Germany. azrak@uni-mainz.de
authors.forename: Birgül
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Azrak
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Victor
authors.forename: Brita
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Willershausen
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pistorius
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hörr
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gleissner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D016301:Alveolar Bone Loss / Q000473:pathology; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000473:pathology; D019229:Dentition, Permanent; D005260:Female; D005553:Forensic Dentistry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D019228:Tooth Crown / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology; D014092:Tooth Root / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging