Age Estimation in Iranian Population Using Tooth/Pulp Ratio in Mandibular Premolars by Panoramic Radiography

Abstract

Background: Age estimation is a fundamental part of forensic science. Considering the fact that pulp size decreases throughout the life because of secondary dentine apposition, many researchers have used it as a method for age estimation with great results. This study aimed to determine the applicability of tooth to pulp ratio in mandibular second premolars in an Iranian population using panoramic radiographs. Methods: The sample consisted of 153 digital panoramic images of male and female Iranians aged 13-70 years, and the tooth to pulp ratio of both left and right mandibular second premolars was obtained using AutoCAD software. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson’s correlation, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. A total of 20 images were reexamined after 30 days to test intra-observer error. Results: ANOVA test showed that gender had no effect on age estimation, and there was a significant correlation between age and tooth/pulp ratio (r=0.679 for right premolar, r=0.712 for left premolars, and r=0.736 for both premolars). Linear regression formulae were created based on the results and the mean differences between the estimated and actual age were reported to be 10.35±0.51, 9.17±0.54, and 8.83±0.52 for right, left, and both premolars, respectively. Intra-observer error showed no significant difference between repeated measurements. Conclusions: Tooth/pulp ratio of mandibular second premolars is a reliable and repeatable method for age estimation in Iranian population and using premolars of both sides yields the best results.

A systematic overview of dental methods for age assessment in living individuals: from traditional to artificial intelligence-based approaches

“…Estimating chronological age in adults has proven to be a much more difficult task, as confirmed in the studies retrieved in this work. None of the studies reported absolute errors lower than 2 years, and trends of under- or overestimation were also more pronounced [ 69 , 78 ]. Regarding the methods using linear or volumetric dental measurements, there is a clear improvement in terms of standard error values when volumetric information is taken into account.…”

“… μ σ med. Li et al [ 67 ] PTLR (Kvaal et al) Chinese 360 20–65 + 8.6 11.80 – – – – 11.40 0.23 Roh et al [ 68 ] PTLR (Kvaal et al) South Korean 266 21–69 − 9.01 11.58 – 12.58 7.54 – 10.70 0.47 Dabbaghi and Kazemi [ 69 ] PTAR (Cameriere et al) Iranian 153 13-70 + 8.83 0.52 – – – – 11.06 0.54 Cameriere et al [ 70 ] PTAR (Cameriere et al) Turkish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and Mexican 891 20–86 – – – 2.43/2.49 – – – – Jain et al [ 159 ] TCI, PCLR Indian 180 15–70 <...…”

“…In the same way, studies published on the evaluation of the Cameriere et al’s method [ 30 ] based on the pulp-to-tooth area ratio focused on the statistical analysis of the method and reported limited information regarding the residual error of the model. Only Dabbaghi and Kazemi [ 69 ] reported the mean error, pointing out an overestimation of 8.83 years. Furthermore, it is noticeable that the lowest absolute errors were obtained in a multi-ethnic sample [ 70 ].…”