Аналіз ефективності використання вдосконаленого методу оцінки морфологічної стадії розвитку зуба за рентгенологічними ознаками

Background. Taking into account the specificity of the tooth-jaw apparatus formation, in a series of previous studies it was noted that even though odontogenesis is influenced by factors of the external and internal environment, however, critical changes in the structure of the teeth germs are observed much lesser than in other systems and organs that are more vulnerable to the influence of different factors. This particular feature is one of the reasons that explains the widespread use of odontological status data in forensic medicine and forensic dental practice not only in order to realize the processes of comparative and reconstructive identification, but more often in order to estimate the age of a person by the stage of tooth formation and eruption. Objective. The purpose of this study was to analyze the efficiency of the improved method for graphic comparison of the radiological signs of tooth morphological development with samples of the reference system. Methods. An analysis of the effectiveness for the improved approach and the method for determining the age with Demirjian technique was performed on 116 orthopantomograms selected from the already pre-existing database of X-ray images of patients aged 6-16 years at the University Dental Clinic (Uzhhorod National University). Each image was segmented to the field of interest which includes research objects and then anonymized with keeping only age-related data, and therefore, age-related data was categorized into groups using a table editor. Improvement of comparison process of teeth digital images with reference samples was provided by the primary segmentation of orthopantomograms and unification of their quality parameters with the standardization of the area of interest and plane orientation, then images were going through the contrasting and contouring processes and further adaptation of the dimensional parameters of the object to those similar in the referencing system. Results. An improved method for evaluating the morphological stage of tooth development by radiological signs involves the steps of digital images segmentation, unification the parameters of their quality and orientation, and the further superimposition of comparative and reference objects in the software. The proposed method of comparing the results obtained during the X-ray diagnosis of the tooth-jaw apparatus with the data of the reference system developed by Demirjian allows to reduce the level of the average absolute error of the dental age definition for 9,09-48,8% in different age groups, thus limiting the mismatch between the dental and chronological age range to 0,11-0,55 years. Conclusion. During the analysis of the dental age evaluation methods that are used in forensic dentistry, it was found that approaches aimed at verifying the stages of individual tooth development provide more accurate results than the approaches aimed to categorize development stage of tooth-jaw apparatus in general. In addition, such techniques limit the influence outcomes of local and general factors for the interpretation of end results, as these factors can provoke variations in terms of forming and eruption of teeth. The use of the developed methodology also significantly reduces the time and cost associated with the implementation of the dental identification stage and the selection of relevant morphological criteria as significant elements for the reconstruction and comparison of anthropometric and radiological profiles of victims of mass casualties, refugees or missing persons.