Age determination of adult individuals by three-dimensional modelling of canines

Abstract

Accurate age determination is fundamental in both forensic medicine and anthropology. Many methods that relate dental characteristics to adult age have been proposed, but there is still no simple and reliable method that does not damage the study material. The aim of this work was to propose a relevant and practical technique for determining age in adults that could be used in both living and deceased individuals. The sample was composed of 210 CT scans from individuals aged from 15 to 85 years old, with four healthy canines present in the mouth. The 840 canines were modelled using Mimics® 10.01 software. The pulp volume/total volume ratio ×100 was determined for each tooth. Seven mathematical models, corresponding to all possible real situations, were determined by the weighted least squares method and ranked in order of relative performance. The adequacy of the seven models to the data was very high with the regressions proposed (0.915 < R (2) adjusted < 0.964). Ranked in order of performance, the maxillary model was the most powerful of the seven models for age determination, followed by the 4 canines model, the 13 model and the 23 model.

Relationship between pulp-tooth volume ratios and chronological age in different anterior teeth on CBCT

“…Furthermore, the results of the present study showed that such a correlation was stronger in males compared to females, i.e. the pulp-to-tooth volume ratio is a more favorable variable in males compared to females to estimate age, indicating that gender affects the formula used to estimate age, consistent with the results reported by Tardivo et al (14) in relation to canines. However, in a study by Star et al (13), the correlation was stronger in females compared to males.…”

“…However, a study in which only mandibular central incisors were used, the results were less valid (12). Tardivo et al (14) reported that simultaneous use of two maxi-llary canines are better and stronger in estimating age compared to the use of four human canine teeth, indicating the higher capacity of maxillary canines, compared to mandibular canines, for estimating age that consistent with the results of the present study. These conclusions might be attributed to the larger size and less anatomic variations of these teeth.…”

“…For example, in a study by Tardivo in the seven models determined to estimate age, maxillary and mandibular canines were used, which yielded good results (14). However, a study in which only mandibular central incisors were used, the results were less valid (12).…”

“…In that study, only the canine teeth were evaluated, which does not appear to be adequate because these teeth might be missing in an individual. In addition, the study was carried out with the use of CT imaging technique which cannot provide dental images with high spatial resolution (14). …”

Use of 3D reconstruction of emergency and postoperative craniocerebral CT images to explore craniocerebral trauma mechanism

“…M. Grassberger et al [12] regards the CT images and 3D reconstruction as the useful tool in clinical forensic casework. In short, the application of medical imaging data and direct 3D reconstructions are becoming more and more recognized by forensic experts [2,4,5,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”