Non-destructive dental-age calculation methods in adults: intra- and inter-observer effects

The aim of the present study was to obtain data on the reliability and reproducibility of two non-destructive dental-age estimation methods in adults by calculating inter- and intra-observer effects. Both a morphological and a radiological technique available in the scientific literature were evaluated on a number of recently extracted teeth: the morphological technique was evaluated on a total of 160 teeth by two examiners, while three examiners applied the radiological technique on apical radiographs of 72 extracted teeth. Paired t-tests were used to calculate intra- and inter-observer differences. For the morphological method, both examiners were able to produce dental-age estimations that did not differ significantly from the real age of the teeth, obtaining a mean error between 0.5 and 1.8 years and a standard deviation of this error between 9.0 and 11.3 years. When using the radiological technique according to the original protocol, all three examiners produced age estimations that were statistically comparable to the real age of the teeth with a mean error of 0.5-2.5 years and a standard deviation of 4.6-9.8 years. For both techniques, intra-observer differences were observed. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that both non-destructive dental-age estimation techniques were able to produce reasonably accurate dental-age estimations, at least when these techniques were applied appropriately. However, the forensic odontologist is recommended to use different age estimation techniques and perform repetitive measurements in order to verify the reproducibility of the calculations performed.