Morphometric analysis of the dental pulp chamber as a method of age determination in humans

Eighty bite-wing radiographs from 40 female and 40 male patients were selected from the patient record system at the University of Texas Dental School at San Antonio, Texas. All samples were equally divided into four age groups, with a range from 15 to 55 years of age. The lower right first permanent molar tooth was chosen as the representative tooth for measuring the maximum height and width of the pulp chamber. The reproducibility of the method was checked by repeating all measurements on two different occasions. Regression analysis indicates that the height and width of the pulp chamber were negatively correlated with age (height r = -0.376 and width r = -0.125). The coefficient of determination (r2) for pulp chamber height and width were 0.123 and 0.058, respectively. This indicates that although there appears to be a definite relationship between the age of an individual and the height and width of the dental pulp chamber, these measures cannot be used as a reliable method of age determination.