Age estimation by dental radiological imaging / 法医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Dental age plays an important role in age estimation. It has often been used together with skeletal age to improve the accuracy of age estimation abroad, but seldom performed in China. As a noninvasive technology, dental radiological imaging has been widely used in age estimation. By observing the age-related changes such as the pulp cavity and development of crown and root on radiographs. Gleiser and Hunt, as well as Demirjian have developed different methods to determine the age of human. Demirjian's method has been proved to be more accurate but with limitation when used in persons of eighteen and above. The accuracy and reliability of the measurements on pulp cavity could be improved as the development of computed tomography with its high resolution and intelligent software. As a convenient and accurate method, age estimation from dental computed tomographs would be more promising in the future for forensic scientists and anthropologists.