[Determining the overall density of permanent human teeth and its relation to the carrier's age (author's transl)]

(1) The pyknometer method was used to determine the specific gravity of the roots, central portions (necks), and crowns of 130 human teeth (incisors, canines, premolars, molars) obtained during autopsies. The overall density or specific gravity was calculated as the mean of the values obtained for these portions of permanent teeth. To test the relation between the total specific gravity and the carrier's individual age, a simple linear regression was calculated. It was not possible for a definite relation to be found between the specific gravities of teeth and the age of their carriers. (2) Limits to determining the individual age from the specific gravity of teeth are set especially by the factors discussed in this paper, by pathological influences, and by variations of specific gravity within isolated hard dental tissue. In human teeth, age-dependent physiosclerosis of bradytrophic tissue obviously is in the form of re- or transmineralization without major changes in the degree of mineralization and is usually overlapped by other phenomena. In addition, preparative and technical faults may result in false specific gravities being obtained. (3) Specific gravities of portions of teeth and total specific gravities determined therefrom cannot be used to find the carrier's age and, therefore, should be dismissed as means of identifying age by methods of forensic stomatology.