Walking the Age Trail on Cemental Lines-A Bright Light and Polarising Microscopic Study

ABSTRACT

Estimation of age using teeth is a proven and useful tool given an important consideration in the anthropology as well as forensic science. Among the various hard tissues, cementum is the most useful substance to evaluate the age of adult teeth. Thus this study was aimed to evaluate the efficacy of tooth cementum annulations method using cross sections of the teeth under bright light and polarised light microscopy and compare the age estimated using the tooth centum annulations method to the actual age of the individual. Material and method Twenty freshly extracted permanent maxillary and mandibular teeth were collected from department of oral and maxillofacial surgery including the age of the patient, date of extraction of the tooth, sex, type and place of the tooth in the dentition. Then the ground sections were prepared and microscopic analysis was done. Results The average difference in the estimated age and the actual age in cross sections of the teeth is 2–2.5 years and in transverse sections of the teeth is 3.5–4 years. A deviation of 5 or more than 5 years was observed in a cross-sectional case and three transverse-sectional cases. Conclusion In our study, we substantiate that age analysis can be performed by both bright field and polarising microscopy which provides similar accuracy. The choice of the method should be driven by the feasibility and ease to conduct them rather than the accuracy needed by these methods.