Gender and Age Estimation Using the Morphometric Analysis of Odontoid Process: Is There a Relationship With Dental Maturation?

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to show that differences in odontoid process related to age and gender using cone beam volumetric tomography, develop regression formulae based on metric data for gender and age estimation in a Turkish population and investigate whether there is a relationship between the odontoid process and dental maturation for usefulness in forensic and bioarchaeological studies. The study sample included a total of 77 subjects in the age group of 8-22 years. The anterior-posterior and transverse diameters of the odontoid process were measured. Regression formulae were performed for age and gender estimation. The dental maturation levels were determined according to Demirjian's method. The mean values of anterior-posterior diameters were significantly larger than those of transverse diameters (P < 0.05). Those values were statistically higher for men than for women (P < 0.05). The lowest correlations were observed for the all measurements of the odontoid process in all cases. There were no significant correlations between the dental maturation levels and all measurements of the odontoid process. The findings of the present study state that measurements of the odontoid process can be utilized for age and gender estimation in the Turkish population.