Secondary dentine deposition is responsible for the decrease in the volume of the pulp cavity with age. Therefore, the volume of the pulp cavity can be considered as a predictor for estimating age. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship strength between canine pulp volumes and chronological age from homogenous (approximately equal numbers of individuals in each age range) age distribution and to assess the effect of sex as predictor in age estimation. This study was performed on 719 subjects of Pakistani origin. Cone beam computed tomography images of 521 left maxillary and 681 left mandibular canines were collected from 368 females and 349 males aged from 15 to 65 years. Planmeca Romexis® software was used to trace the outline of the pulp cavity and to calculate pulp volumes. Regression analysis was performed to assess the correlation between pulp volumes considering with and without sex as a predictor with chronological age. The obtained results showed that mandibular canine pulp volume and sex have the highest predictive power (R2 = 0.33). The relationship between mandibular canine pulp volume and sex with chronological age demonstrates an odd S-shaped non-linear relationship. A statistically significant difference in volumes of pulp was found (p = 0.000) between males and females. The conclusion was that predictions using the pulp volume of the mandibular canine and sex produced the best estimates of chronological age.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00414-019-02147-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Radiographic methods using pulp tooth volume ratio (PTVR) are important for dental age estimation. According to previous studies, using PTVR possess different relationships with age in males and females but none of the studies have used a homogenous (approximately equal numbers of individuals in each age range) age distribution to assess this relationship and the effect of sex as predictor on age estimation.This study was performed on Cone beam computed tomography images of 521 left maxillary and 681 left mandibular canines of 719 subjects of Pakistani origin (368 females and 349 males) aged from 15-65 years. Planmeca Romexis® software was used to trace the outline of the pulp cavity and tooth and to calculate respective volumes. Subsequently, Microsoft®Office Excel 2016 was used to calculate the ratios.Regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between PTVR factoring sex in as a predictor for age estimation. The obtained results showed that including sex as predictor with maxillary PTVR (R 2 =0.46) have the highest predictive power. The relationship between maxillary PTVR including sex with chronological age demonstrates a non-linear relationship.The conclusion is that including sex as predictor with maxillary PTVR produced the best estimate of chronological age.

Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) enables the assessment of regressive morphological changes in teeth, which can be used to predict chronological age (CA) in adults. As each tooth region is known to have different correlations with CA, this study aimed to segment and quantify the sectional volumes of the tooth crown and root from CBCT scans to test their correlations with the chronological age (CA).Seventy-five CBCT scans from individuals with age between 20 and 60 years were collected retrospectively from an existing database. A total of 192 intact maxillary How to cite this article: Merdietio Boedi R, Shepherd S, Oscandar F, Mânica S, Franco A. Regressive changes of crown-root morphology and their volumetric segmentation for adult dental age estimation.

Forensic dentistry (odontology) deals with the examination, handling and presentation of dental evidence for the legal system. In the UK this work mainly involves criminal cases but in many other countries its remit also extends to civil litigation. There are four main aspects to forensic dentistry: single body identification, Disaster Victim Identification (DVI), age estimation and bite mark identification and analysis. This article provides a brief introduction to the topics and discusses potential future developments that aim to reduce the subjectivity in the analysis process and simplify presentation of evidence to non-dental parties. CPD/Clinical Relevance: This article highlights ways that dental practitioners can assist legal investigations and, in particular, forensic dentists.

The properties of the skin and the posture of the body during photographic recording are factors that cause distortion in the bite mark injury. This study aimed to explore the degree of distortion between a 'touch mark' (method 1) and a 'bite mark' (method 2) on the left upper arm at three different positions (arm relaxed; arm flexed in two different positions). A pair of dental casts with biting edges coated in ink was used to create a mark in 30 subjects (6 ♂, 24 ♀) aged 20-50 years old. Photographs were taken using a Nikon DX digital camera (D5000). The mesiodistal widths and angle of rotations of both upper right central incisor and lower right central incisor and the inter-canine distances were analysed and compared with the true measurements using Adobe Photoshop CC 2017. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS Statistics 22 applying a 2 (mark type) × 3 (position) repeated measures ANOVA. For all measures studied, there was a statistically significant difference between mark types and positions. In the case of bite marks, a great degree of distortion was detected, and this increased further when changing the position of the arm. The findings demonstrated that skin properties and posture influence distortion. This could lead to inaccurate measurements and misleading pattern interpretation of bite mark injuries.

In adult dental age estimation, segmentation of dental volumetric information from different tooth parts using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) has proven beneficial in improving the regression model reliability. This segmentation method can be expanded in the crown part since the volumetric information in the crown is affected by attrition in the enamel and secondary dentine in the dentine and pulp chamber. CBCT scans from 99 patients aged between 20 and 60 were collected retrospectively. A total of 80 eligible teeth for each tooth type were used in this study. The enamel to dentine volume ratio (EDVR), pulp to dentine volume ratio (PDVR) and sex were used as independent variables to predict chronological age (CA). The EDVR was not affected by PDVR. The highest R2 was calculated from the maxillary canine (R2 = 0.6). The current approach in crown segmentation has proven to improve model performance in anterior maxillary teeth.

Forensic dentistry plays a major role in human identification. Teeth carry individual characteristics that differ among different individuals. Dental radiographs depict reality objectively, being the most reliable tool for dental identification. The first aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of dental identification of individuals with permanent unrestored teeth by visual comparison with radiographs of mixed dentition. The second aim was to learn which anatomical features were compared by examiners with different backgrounds. A total of 19 forensic experts participated in a web-based questionnaire to assess identification of 12 simulated cases; each case required the radiographic comparison of 1 dental PM radiograph to 3 dental AM radiographs, of which only one was the correct match. The examiners were given four options following the ABFO guidelines: established identification, possible identification, insufficient data and exclusion; the participants also explained the reason for each of their conclusions. The accuracy of the methodology was 75,4%, the sensitivity was 53,5% and the specificity was 86,4%. Overall, there was a tendency of the observers to overlook non-dental characteristics. Not surprisingly, dental identification by visual comparison of radiographs was not immune to subjectivity and, even analysing the same category of features, different conclusions and consequently different percentages of accuracy were reached. When matching the correct AM radiograph, most examiners compared the root morphology of the first molars and the shape of the maxillary sinus. When one of the AM radiographs was not matched, the examiners mostly asserted that there was insufficient data to reach a conclusion due to the lack of distinctive and comparable features. With AM and PM radiographs showing different development stages, accuracy was correlated to the age of the AM radiograph.