Adults’ dental age estimation by mandibular canines’ pulp/tooth ratio in Surabaya, Indonesia

Abstract

Human dentition is widely used as a growth marker in dentistry, anthropology, archaeology, and forensic sciences, allowing comparison between individuals and populations. Dental age estimation in adults is challenging for forensic odontologists because numerous endogenous and exogenous factors influence dentition as age increases. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of the pulp/tooth ratio in estimating the biological age of adults in Surabaya, Indonesia. 42 periapical radiographs of canine were involved in this study. Dental age assessment was performed following Cameriere’s method using Adobe®Photoshop® CS6. The statistical analysis of the present study was carried out using IBM® SPSS® Statistics 23.0. This study found a significant correlation between the pulp/tooth ratio and biological age. Based on the sex groups, female subjects had a higher level of reliability, -0.797, with mean absolute errors (MAE) was 5.34 years compared to males, -0.615 and MAE was 7.40 years. Based on a certain age range, the middle adult group (31-50 years old) demonstrated the highest level of reliability, -0.782 with MAE being 3.90 years. The finding of the present study suggested that the pulp/tooth ratio has a high degree of reliability in estimating individual age. Furthermore, Cameriere’s method can be applied as a supporting method for age determination in adults in Indonesia. This method performs best for estimating dental age in females between the ages of 31 and 50 years. Future study of dental age estimation using the pulp/tooth ratio is suggested to develop a specific equation for the Indonesian population.