Abstract
This study assessed the accuracy of fractal analysis (FA) to estimate chronological age and sex in Brazilian adults for forensic investigations. The gender-balanced sample comprised lateral cephalometric radiographs of 120 individuals, stratified according to age (20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 years) and sex (female and male). A trained calibrated examiner measured the fractal dimension (FD) of the mandibular ramus and mandibular angle. Linear regression and multiple logistic discriminant analysis were carried out to explore the accuracy of FA. For all analyses, p-values < .05 indicated statistical significance. Overall, mean FD values were 1.49±0.10 for the mandibular ramus and 1.48±0.09 for mandibular angle. Results were more accurate in males than females for discriminating age and sex. The multiple discriminant analysis indicated that FA distinguished sex in 61.7% males and 58.3% females. In addition, the mean difference between actual and predicted value was 9.5 years and 10.1 years for men and women, respectively. Fractal analysis accurately identified sex- and age-related differences in the trabecular pattern of the mandible of Brazilian adults, confirming its utility for forensic investigations. Further studies investigating other populations are needed to assess the accuracy of FA for Forensic Dentistry.
Highlights
Forensic Dentistry entails processing, reviewing, and assessing dental evidence to assist the legal system by providing scientific and objective data (Ata-Ali & Ata-Ali, 2014)
The measurements taken by the calibrated single examiner exhibited high reliability, with an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) of 0.87 and 0.94 for mandibular ramus and mandibular angle, respectively
Mean of the fractal dimension (FD) values were 1.49±0.10 for mandibular ramus and 1.48±0.09 for mandibular angle. For both regions of interest, the average of the FD values was higher for males than females (Table 1) (Figure 3)
Summary
Forensic Dentistry entails processing, reviewing, and assessing dental evidence to assist the legal system by providing scientific and objective data (Ata-Ali & Ata-Ali, 2014). Forensic odontologists use dental findings and skeletonized skulls in legal cases to determine individuals’ age, biotype, height, and sex (Andrade et al, 2021; Silva, 1997). Likewise, these professionals seek to establish the criminal responsibility and human identification in cases of missing persons (Angadi, Hemani, Prabhu, & Acharya, 2013), mass disasters (Prajapati et al, 2018), and migratory phenomena (da Luz et al, 2019), among other examples. These techniques initially centered on the development of secondary dentin (Gustafson, 1950)
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