Abstract
Background and Objective Evaluation of dental attrition is an easy and relatively accurate approach to estimating the age of an adult either ante- or postmortem for some specific population. Dental attrition represents a progressive physiological age change that can be measured using variety of indices to aid as an adjunct in forensic age estimation. Some of the previously proposed indices have their own practical limitations. This paper focuses on using modified Kim's criteria to score dental attrition to estimate the age of Chinese Malaysian adults and validate it. Methodology Tooth wear was evaluated on 190 dental models of Chinese Malaysian adults (age range: 20–60 years) using modified Kim's index to custom-derive a population specific linear equation. The same equation was validated further on new 60 dental casts. Results and Conclusion Regression analysis revealed good correlation between age and teeth wear and lower standard error of estimate. Test of regression on a test sample (n = 30 pairs, age range: 20–60 years) showed insignificant difference between predicted versus the actual age with statistically acceptable mean absolute difference. These data suggest that modified Kim's index can be used effectively in forensic age estimation.
Highlights
Establishing one’s identity is an important aspect in any forensic casework
Age estimation plays a vital role in such scenarios. This is especially true when the police or the investigators already have a putative age; a forensic age estimation that is close to the presumed age provides clarity in the line of investigation [1]
The relation between occlusal wear and aging was evaluated among indigenous Amazon population and suggested that tooth wear is a poor estimator of chronological age in the urban population; it has a strong association with age for more remote indigenous populations [19]
Summary
Establishing one’s identity is an important aspect in any forensic casework. Numerous contributing factors like age, sex, population designation, and stature prediction help in reconstructing the identity. Since Gustafson’s scoring system [2] for estimation of chronological age from human teeth, there have been several reports on improved methodologies [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11] including digital techniques in this field [1] Some of these methods require tooth extraction and preparation of microscopic sections of teeth. Tooth wear was evaluated on 190 dental models of Chinese Malaysian adults (age range: 20–60 years) using modified Kim’s index to custom-derive a population specific linear equation. Test of regression on a test sample (n = 30 pairs, age range: 20–60 years) showed insignificant difference between predicted versus the actual age with statistically acceptable mean absolute difference These data suggest that modified Kim’s index can be used effectively in forensic age estimation
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