Possibilities of Dental Age Assessment in Permanent Teeth: A Review

Abstract

The developmental stages of the first and second dentition, combined with abrasive wear of the dental hard tissue can be used for age determination in many mammal species and in humans. Concerning dental age determination, one has to distinguish between invasive techniques, which are mainly applied in dead individuals, and non-invasive methods suitable for living individuals. In contrast to in adults, where only few parameters are available for orientation, age determination in children and adolescents is in general fairly easy, and is facilitated by stereotypical biological growth patterns. In the present article, different methods for dental age determination are introduced, with a special focus on the fields of application, and on the limits of age determination. With increasing age, the number of valid and meaningful dental characteristics diminishes, and therefore the accuracy of dental age assessment decreases.

Reliability of India-specific regression formula for age estimation of population in and around Bahadurgarh, Haryana (India)

“…8 Developing teeth are generally considered to be the most useful and reliable indicators of maturation, because they are less affected than other body tissues by endocrinopathies and environmental insults, exogenic factors such as malnutrition or disease. 8,9 The dental system is an integral part of the human body; its growth and development can be studied in parallel with other physiological maturity indicators such as bone age, menarche, and height. 10 DA determination is required in various clinical and scientific disciplines such as pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, archeology, paleontology, and forensic dentistry.…”

Testing Gustafson's dental age estimation method on a sample of Western Cape adults

“…The tooth changes used in the Gustafson method (1950) include attrition, change of the level of the periodontal attachment, secondary dentine deposition, resorption of the root, apposition of cementum and translucency of the root. [4][5][6][7] In the past, several different techniques have been suggested for the estimation of a person's dental age, based on the facial and/or oral structures. These include morphological and radiological methods.…”

“…Some of the techniques can also be classified as invasive, which can mostly be used only in deceased individuals, and others as non-invasive, which can be used in both the living and the dead. 6 Gustafson's method (1950) used the six age-related changes mentioned above. 7 Gustafson then applied his method to teeth that had been extracted from persons of known age.…”

“…From this graph, the age of an unknown individual was then determined with reasonable accuracy. 1,6,7 According to Gustafson, the average error in age estimation using this technique was about 3.63 years. He then also found that the estimation of an individual's age is even more accurate if more than one tooth from that individual were examined.…”

“…This study was however done only on Europeans from Sweden. 1,6,7 Over the years numerous studies have been conducted in order to either prove or disprove Gustafson's method of age estimation, as several researchers and investigators were convinced that there was an error in this method.…”