Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jan;4(1):13-8.
doi: 10.4103/0975-1475.99154.

An evaluation of third molar eruption for assessment of chronologic age: A panoramic study

Monica Tuteja  1 , Shraddha Bahirwani, P Balaji
Affiliations

An evaluation of third molar eruption for assessment of chronologic age: A panoramic study

Monica Tuteja et al. J Forensic Dent Sci. 2012 Jan.

Abstract

Objectives: The identity of a person can be established by assessing one's age, and in order to be entitled to civil rights and social benefits, verification of the chronological age is required and thereby age estimation has gained an increasing significance in recent years. Tooth eruption is one of the criteria of developmental morphology that can be evaluated by either clinical examination or by evaluation of dental radiographs to determine the dental age. The present study was aimed to evaluate the reliability of the third molar eruption stage as a parameter for forensic age estimation in living subjects.

Materials and methods: The stage of wisdom tooth eruption in 77 male and 73 female Indian subjects aged between 12-26 years was determined by subjecting them to conventional orthopantomograms and was interpreted to assess the third molar eruption stages to evaluate the dental age.

Results: Predicted minimum age and mean age of the study sample were found to be significant predictors (P<0.001) of actual age. Minimum age was able to explain 58.3% of the variation in actual age and the mean age was able to explain 60.3% of variation in actual age.

Conclusion: Third molar is fairly a reliable indicator to determine the age of alveolar, gingival, and complete emergence of third molar in the occlusal plane in adolescents and young adults. Minimum and most probable ages of examined subjects can also be evaluated using third molar eruption stage.

Keywords: Age estimation; dental age; third molar; tooth eruption.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cropped orthopantomograph - Tooth 18, 28, 38, 48 in stage A
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cropped orthopantomograph - Tooth 18, 28 in stage A and 38, 48 in stage B
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cropped orthopantomograph - Tooth 18 in stage C and 28, 38, 48 in stage D
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Stavrianos CH, Mastagas D, Stavrianou I, Karaiskou O. Dental age estimation of adults: A review of methods and principals. Res J Med Sci. 2008;2:258–68.
    1. Narnbiar P. Age estimation using third molar development. Malaysian J Pathol. 1995;17:31–4. - PubMed
    1. Bhat VJ, Kamath GP. Age estimation from root development of mandibular third molars in comparison with skeletal age of wrist joint. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2007;28:238–41. - PubMed
    1. Olze A, Peschke C, Schulz R, Shmeling A. Studies of the chronological course of wisdom tooth eruption in a German population. J Forensic Legal Med. 2008;15:426–9. - PubMed
    1. Olze A, Ishikawa T, Zhu BL, Schulz R, Heinecke A, Maeda H, et al. Studies of the chronological couse of wisdom tooth eruption in a Japanese population. Forensic Sci Int. 2008;174:203–6. - PubMed