Secondary dentine deposition is responsible for the decrease in the volume of the pulp cavity with age. Therefore, the volume of the pulp cavity can be considered as a predictor for estimating age. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship strength between canine pulp volumes and chronological age from homogenous (approximately equal numbers of individuals in each age range) age distribution and to assess the effect of sex as predictor in age estimation. This study was performed on 719 subjects of Pakistani origin. Cone beam computed tomography images of 521 left maxillary and 681 left mandibular canines were collected from 368 females and 349 males aged from 15 to 65 years. Planmeca Romexis® software was used to trace the outline of the pulp cavity and to calculate pulp volumes. Regression analysis was performed to assess the correlation between pulp volumes considering with and without sex as a predictor with chronological age. The obtained results showed that mandibular canine pulp volume and sex have the highest predictive power (R2 = 0.33). The relationship between mandibular canine pulp volume and sex with chronological age demonstrates an odd S-shaped non-linear relationship. A statistically significant difference in volumes of pulp was found (p = 0.000) between males and females. The conclusion was that predictions using the pulp volume of the mandibular canine and sex produced the best estimates of chronological age.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00414-019-02147-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Radiographic methods using pulp tooth volume ratio (PTVR) are important for dental age estimation. According to previous studies, using PTVR possess different relationships with age in males and females but none of the studies have used a homogenous (approximately equal numbers of individuals in each age range) age distribution to assess this relationship and the effect of sex as predictor on age estimation.This study was performed on Cone beam computed tomography images of 521 left maxillary and 681 left mandibular canines of 719 subjects of Pakistani origin (368 females and 349 males) aged from 15-65 years. Planmeca Romexis® software was used to trace the outline of the pulp cavity and tooth and to calculate respective volumes. Subsequently, Microsoft®Office Excel 2016 was used to calculate the ratios.Regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between PTVR factoring sex in as a predictor for age estimation. The obtained results showed that including sex as predictor with maxillary PTVR (R 2 =0.46) have the highest predictive power. The relationship between maxillary PTVR including sex with chronological age demonstrates a non-linear relationship.The conclusion is that including sex as predictor with maxillary PTVR produced the best estimate of chronological age.

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