Can root pulp visibility in mandibular first molars be used as an alternative age marker at the 16 year threshold in the absence of mandibular third molars: an orthopantomographic study in a South Indian sample

Authors

  • Suvarna Manthapuri
  • Srikanth Bheemanapalli MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre
  • Lakshmi Prasanna Namburu
  • Saranya Kunchala
  • Deepika Vankdoth
  • Sudheer Babu Balla Panineeya Institute of Dental Sciences and Research Center
  • Vanitha Bathala
  • Aishwarya Lakshmi Kasabu

Keywords:

Dental age estimation, Root pulp visibility, Mandibular first molars, Specificity, 16 years, ROC curves

Abstract

In many countries, 16- years- age- threshold is considered to be legally relevant according to the law. This research aims to ascertain the sensitivity and specificity of Olze et al. stages of root pulp visibility (RPV) in a sample of 760 south Indian children aged between 12 and 20 years, with an age threshold of 16 years, using receiver operating characteristic curves and area under the curve (AUC). Spearman’s rho correlation showed a strong positive correlation between the RPV stages and the age. No significant difference between the right and left lower first molars was seen. RPV Stage 2 showed the highest AUC in both females (0.813) and males (0.790). The performance of the RPV Stage 2 to discriminate the legal age threshold of 16 years resulted in the sensitivity, specificity and the accuracy values of 0.61, 0.96 and 0.77 in males, 0.65, 0.97 and 0.80 in females. It resulted in 3.6% and 2.9% of false positives and 38.5% and 34.5% of false negatives in both sexes. Even though, RPV Stage 2 can discriminate reasonably well between two age categories, due to the high percentage of false negatives we recommend for its use in conjunction with other age estimation methods.

Author Biography

Sudheer Babu Balla, Panineeya Institute of Dental Sciences and Research Center

Department of Forensic Odontology

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Published

2021-09-18

How to Cite

Manthapuri , S., Bheemanapalli, S., Namburu, L. P., Kunchala, S., Vankdoth, D., Balla, S. B., … Kasabu, A. L. (2021). Can root pulp visibility in mandibular first molars be used as an alternative age marker at the 16 year threshold in the absence of mandibular third molars: an orthopantomographic study in a South Indian sample. The Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology - JFOS, 39(2), 21: 31. Retrieved from https://ojs.iofos.eu/index.php/Journal/article/view/1323

Issue

Section

Age Estimation