title: Exfoliative cytology: A possible tool in age estimation in forensic odontology.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Age determination of unknown human bodies is important in the setting of a crime investigation or a mass disaster because the age at death, birth date, and year of death as well as gender can guide investigators to the correct identity among a large number of possible matches.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The study was undertaken with an aim to estimate the age of an individual from their buccal smears by comparing the average cell size using image analysis morphometric software.
  
  
  METHODS
  Buccal smears were collected from 100 apparently healthy individuals. After fixation in 95% alcohol, the smears were stained using standard Papanicolaou laboratory procedure. The average cell size was measured using Dewinter's image analysis software version 4.3. Statistical analysis of the data was done using one-way ANOVA, Bonferroni procedures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed significant decrease in average cell size of individual with increase in age. The difference was highly significant in age group of above 60 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Age-related alterations are observed in buccal smears.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Microbiology, I. T. S Center for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Devi Charan
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Shetty
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Microbiology, I. T. S Center for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Vijay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wadhwan
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Microbiology, I. T. S Center for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Kaveri Surya
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Khanna
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Microbiology, I. T. S Center for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Anshi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Microbiology, I. T. S Center for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
keywords: Cell size; exfoliative cytology; image analysis