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
. 2021 Oct 15:13:429-440.
doi: 10.2147/CCIDE.S313587. eCollection 2021.

Estimation of Age by Evaluating the Occlusal Tooth Wear in Molars: A Study on Dakshina Kannada Population

Amitha J Lewis  1 , Chandni Sreekumar  2 , N Srikant  1 , Karen Boaz  1 , K P Nandita  1 , Nidhi Manaktala  1 , Shweta Yellapurkar  1
Affiliations

Estimation of Age by Evaluating the Occlusal Tooth Wear in Molars: A Study on Dakshina Kannada Population

Amitha J Lewis et al. Clin Cosmet Investig Dent. .

Abstract

Purpose: Assessment of teeth to estimate age in the living as well as the dead is well documented in the literature. Though applied in conjunction with other parameters in Gustafson's technique, attrition of teeth solely is an underexplored indicator for age estimation mainly in India. Most of the studies using attrition of teeth have been conducted in bioarchaeology, and in populations where studies are being conducted in forensic contexts, the results are debatable. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of age estimation using the Average Stage of Attrition (ASA) method by Li and Ji in adults of the Dakshina Kannada region.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study assessed the degree of attrition in both maxillary and mandibular first and second molars of 136 adults of Dakshina Kannada origin (age range: 20-70 years) according to the 10 stages given by Li and Ji to derive population-specific linear regression equations.

Results: Univariate analysis of prediction of age with attrition showed a significant association of attrition score with age, stratified by sex, arch as well as in total (p-value <0.001) with a standard error of estimate of 9.231 years. The estimated age was within ±5 years of the actual age in 44.2% of the females and 50.0% of the males. A comparative review of 23 studies done to estimate age from attrition score clinically is documented in the manuscript.

Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that evaluation of tooth wear by the Average Stage of Attrition (ASA) method can be used as a non-invasive means to aid in the determination of age in adults of Dakshina Kannada origin. Although the error increases with age, this method provides a measurable means of seriation into older and younger categories.

Keywords: age estimation; forensic odontology; molars; occlusal wear; tooth attrition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Average Stage of Attrition method on the molars. (A) Mesiobuccal cusp (Stage 4) + Distobuccal (Stage 0) + Distolingual (Stage 0) + Mesiolingual (Stage 1) i.e, formula image = 1.25 stage. (B) Mesiobuccal cusp (Stage 6) + Distobuccal (Stage 6) + Distolingual (Stage 5) + Mesiolingual (Stage 6). i.e, formula image = 5.75 stage.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scatter plot depicting the distribution of age, predicted by the equation derived by using the attrition score.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scatter plot depicting the distribution of age, predicted by the equation derived by using the attrition score in the presence of confounding factors (habit and number of cusps involved).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Li C, Ji G. Age estimation from the permanent molar in northeast China by the method of average stage of attrition. Forensic Sci Int. 1995;75:189–196. doi:10.1016/0379-0738(95)01791-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ajmal M, Mody B, Kumar G. Age estimation using three established methods. A study on Indian population. Forensic Sci Int. 2001;122(2–3):150–154. doi:10.1016/S0379-0738(01)00501-1 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kim YK, Kho HS, Lee KH. Age estimation by occlusal tooth wear. J Forensic Sci. 2000;45(2):303–309. doi:10.1520/JFS14683J - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pelsmaekers B, Loos R, Carelsl C, Derom C, Vlietinck R. The genetic contribution to dental maturation. J Dent Res. 1997;76(7):1337–1340. doi:10.1177/00220345970760070201 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Verma M, Verma N, Sharma R, Sharma A. Dental age estimation methods in adult dentitions: an overview. J Forensic Dent Sci. 2019;11(2):57–63. doi:10.4103/jfo.jfds_64_19 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources