Author:

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Medicine, Legal, Legal Medicine, forensic science, age determination by teeth, cone beam computed tomography, semi-automated CBCT separation and segmentation, secondary dentine, pulp-tooth volume ratio, ASPARTIC-ACID RACEMIZATION, QUALITY-ASSURANCE, SECONDARY DENTIN, RADIOGRAPHS, ADULTS, CT, IDENTIFICATION, OSSIFICATION, INDICATOR, CEMENTUM, Adolescent, Adult, Age Determination by Teeth, Aged, Bicuspid, Child, Cone-Beam Computed Tomography, Cuspid, Dental Pulp, Female, Forensic Dentistry, Humans, Imaging, Three-Dimensional, Incisor, Male, Middle Aged, Regression Analysis, Software, Young Adult, 0399 Other Chemical Sciences, 0699 Other Biological Sciences, 1103 Clinical Sciences, Legal & Forensic Medicine, 3199 Other biological sciences, 3499 Other chemical sciences, 4402 Criminology

Abstract:

Secondary dentine is responsible for a decrease in the volume of the dental pulp cavity with aging. The aim of this study is to evaluate a human dental age estimation method based on the ratio between the volume of the pulp and the volume of its corresponding tooth, calculated on clinically taken cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images from monoradicular teeth. On the 3D images of 111 clinically obtained CBCT images (Scanora(®) 3D dental cone beam unit) of 57 female and 54 male patients ranging in age between 10 and 65 years, the pulp-tooth volume ratio of 64 incisors, 32 canines, and 15 premolars was calculated with Simplant(®) Pro software. A linear regression model was fit with age as dependent variable and ratio as predictor, allowing for interactions of specific gender or tooth type. The obtained pulp-tooth volume ratios were the strongest related to age on incisors.