NCJ Number
191466
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 46 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2001 Pages: 889-892
Editor(s)
Michael A. Peat Ph.D.
Date Published
July 2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper investigated the differences in morphological age-related changes between fresh extracted teeth and teeth from human skeletal remains and the development of a computer-assisted image analysis method in studying morphological changes.
Abstract
Mineralized tissues (bone and teeth) have been used as the human tissues most resistant to degradation and putrefaction and utilized in the identification of human skeletal remains. In order to develop appropriate dental age estimation methods according to the time after death, the study examined differences in morphological age-related changes between fresh extracted teeth and teeth from human skeletal remains. Current methods of estimating chronological age at death include the study of morphological changes in teeth. Forty-three permanent teeth, excluding molars, were taken from patients age 25- to 79-years-old (both male and female). Results showed evidence to suggest that some individual factors, such as sex or type of tooth, should be taken into account when the age of the corpse was diagnosed by estimating dental age. In addition, changes in tooth color had been observed when populations of different postmortem intervals were studied. It was recommended that postmortem interval affects age-related morphological changes, and different methods of dental age estimation be used depending on the time after death. In addition, it was recommended that regression models for dental age estimation be obtained for different postmortem intervals. Tables and references