Age estimation/dental development and CT analysis

The estimation of a child’s age can be of use in a number of disciplines: archaeology, anthropology, forensic medicine and Disaster Victim Identification. Skeletal maturity and dental development can be used to perform this estimation, with estimated dental age being regarded as more accurate, given that dental development is less influenced by external factors. Previously the most popular methods of dental age estimation have used the formative stages of the deciduous and permanent dentitions viewed on plain radiographs. However the introduction of CT scanners in forensic institutions has opened the door to the use of CT images in their stead. During the identification effort following the Victorian ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires of 2009, the CT scanner at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine was used in a variety of ways, one of which was age screening. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of age estimation using the dental ageing method proposed by Moorrees, Fanning and Hunt, using CT images of children aged 7 years and less. Intra-and inter-rater variability between two raters, both experienced dental practitioners, was also assessed.