Pulp/Tooth Area Method: A Potential Statistical Tool for Age Estimation Using Digital Dental Radiographs Singal Kusum1, Sharma Neelkamal2,*, Singh Permila3, Kumar Vikas1, Punia Neha4, Yadav Monika4 1Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Genetics (Forensic Science), MDU, Rohtak 2Assistant Professor, Dept. of Genetics (Forensic Science), MDU, Rohtak 3Assistant Professor, Dept. of Statistics, G.C.W, Rohtak 4MSc. Students, Dept. of Genetics (Forensic Science), MDU, Rohtak *Corresponding Author: Dr. Neelkamal Sharma, MSc. PhD Assistant Professor, Dept. of Genetics (Forensic Science), MDU, Rohtak, Email id: neelforensics@gmail.com
Online published on 7 May, 2019. Abstract Background Dental age estimation methods are one of the most advocated and widely accepted approaches in forensic anthropology. Aim This is an analytical study to assess pulp/tooth area ratio of 2 maxillary and 2 mandibular monoradicular teeth and to correlate pulp/tooth area ratio with chronological age. Methodology The study was performed on a sample of 480 Radiovisiographs (RVGs) of subjects having the age range from 15–54 years. Two radiographic measurements were done on each radiograph with the help of imaging software Adobe Photoshop, CS6. One is pulp area (PA) and another one is tooth area (TA). The ratio of pulp/tooth area (PA/TA) was calculated and tabulated in Microsoft excel sheet. Data was analyzed using statistical software. Findings One way ANOVA was done to compare mean PA/TA ratio amongst all the selected teeth. The inter-group comparison of mean PA/TA ratio was done using the Post-hoc bonferroni test. Significant negative correlation of age with PA/TA ratio was reported for the over-all sample. The mean PA/TA was significantly more among maxillary 2nd premolar in comparison to maxillary canine. Conclusion Present study is an attempt to correlate the chronological age with pulp/tooth area ratio using monoradicular teeth only. The study can be further carried out using monoradicular as well as multiradicular teeth on a larger sample size. Top Keywords Forensic odontology, age estimation, statistical, digital dental radiographs, Radiovisiographs, Pulp/tooth area etc. Top |