title: The effects of racemization rate for age estimation of pink teeth.
abstract: Pink teeth is thought to result from the seepage of hemoglobin caused by dental pulp decomposition. We investigated whether racemization can be applied for age estimation in cases of pink teeth where the whole tooth is used. The pink teeth used were three cases and the normal teeth for control were five mandibular canines of known age. Age of the pink teeth was calculated on the basis of regression formula obtained from the five control teeth. Only a slight error was noted between the actual and estimated ages of the pink teeth (R(2) = 0.980, r = 0.990): Cases 1-3 actually aged 23, 53, and 59 years were estimated to be 26, 52, and 60 years. Based on our results of testing pink teeth of known age, we suggest that racemization techniques allow for the age estimation of pink teeth using the same methods for normally colored teeth.
authors: Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8670, Japan.
authors: Ayaka
authors: A
authors: Sakuma
authors: Hisako
authors: H
authors: Saitoh
authors: Namiko
authors: N
authors: Ishii
authors: Hirotaro
authors: H
authors: Iwase
mesh_terms: D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003116:Color; D003481:Cuspid / Q000473:pathology*; D005553:Forensic Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D012044:Regression Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D001224:Aspartic Acid
keywords: age estimation; aspartic acid; forensic science; odontology; pink teeth; racemization