Chronological course of third molar eruption in a Portuguese population

Forensic age determination has become increasingly important over the past few years. Dental age estimation is frequently used as a part of this process due to the technique simplicity and reliability. This process is done taking into account pre-established values that, often, concern the populatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of legal medicine 2012, Vol.126 (1), p.107-112
Main Authors: Caldas, Inês Morais, Carneiro, José Luís, Teixeira, Alexandra, Matos, Eduarda, Afonso, Américo, Magalhães, Teresa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Age
Age Determination by Teeth
Child
Criminal investigations
Dentistry
Female
Females
Forensic Medicine
Humans
Male
Males
Medical Law
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mineralization
Molar, Third
Original Article
Teeth
Tooth Eruption
X-rays
Young Adult
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Summary:Forensic age determination has become increasingly important over the past few years. Dental age estimation is frequently used as a part of this process due to the technique simplicity and reliability. This process is done taking into account pre-established values that, often, concern the population of the undocumented person. In this manner, population parameters are needed. In this paper, the authors present data concerning the third molar eruption in a Portuguese population: The minimum age for alveolar emergence of third molars ranged from 6.6 to 11.3 in females and 7.4 to 8.3 in males, for gingival emergence was 11.1 to 15.1 for females and 8.3 to 14.4 in males and for complete emergence was 15.9 to 19.4 in females and 13.4 for males. Complete emergence was found to be a useful marker for diagnosing age inferior 16 years, both in males and females, with 99.2% and 99.3% of correct predictions, respectively. These findings point out that it is possible to estimate the age of investigated persons based on alveolar, gingival and complete emergence of the third molars in the occlusal plane.
ISSN:0937-9827
1437-1596
DOI:10.1007/s00414-011-0600-7