Third Molar Development in the Estimation of Chronologic Age in American Blacks as Compared With Whites^*

Abstract

Third molar (M3) development determined from dental radiographs in American blacks (African Americans; n=637) aged 14-24 years was contrasted against American whites (n=563) from a previous study using the method of Demirjian et al. Differences were assessed using descriptive statistics and the parametric proportional hazards model. For each developmental stage, the probability of an individual being at least 18 years old was evaluated. As in other M3 studies, there were highly significant modal differences, but the age ranges at each stage overlapped considerably. Black-white differences were highly significant with developmental stages occurring in blacks a year or so earlier. Gender differences also varied significantly, both with increasing age and between races. The empirical likelihood that an African American male with fully developed M3's is at least 18 years old is 93% and that for African American female is 84%. Corresponding risks for whites are 90% and 93%.

A systematic revision of Proconsul with the description of a new genus of early Miocene hominoid

“…However, we found this tooth to be unreliable for taxonomic purposes. Within primates, M 3 s are typically the most variable molars in both size and shape (Blankenship et al, 2007;Kavanagh et al, 2007), and this is observable even in small samples of Proconsul species. The P. africanus holotype has a substantially reduced M 3 whereas in KNM-CA 2250 -attributed by most authors to this species (Andrews, 1978;Pickford et al, 2009) -it is fully developed.…”

Estimating age and the likelihood of having attained 18 years of age using mandibular third molars

“…Diagnostic accuracy of M3 to predict age 18 was tested. Design Methods were tested on a target sample of 300 dental panoramic radiographs (age [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Diagnostic accuracy was assessed on separate reference data (n = 1,663, age [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”

Dental age diagnostics by means of radiographical evaluation of the growth stages of lower wisdom teeth

“…Based on the recommendations of the Study Group on Forensic Age Diagnostics [18,19], the forensic age estimation of living people included a physical examination, an X-ray of the left hand, and a dental examination. An important criterion in the dental examination is wisdom tooth root growth [1,4,8,13,15].…”