Evaluation of post-mortem estimated dental age versus real age: a retrospective 21-year survey

The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability of methods used for forensic dental age estimation. We analysed all cases over the last 21 years (1984-2004) of unidentified bodies that were examined for identification purposes (including age assessment), and of which secure identification was subsequently achieved. In total, the study included 51 cases and 7 different methods had been used for dental age estimation, with the Bang/Ramm and the Gustafson/Johanson methods being the most frequently applied. The age estimates had usually been recorded as 10-year intervals. Factual ages at death were in the range of 6-76 years, with the largest concentration of cases being in the age interval of 25-55 years (34 cases). There was good agreement between estimated age interval and factual age at death in 37/51 (72%) of the cases. In eight cases the factual age at death deviated up to +/-5 years from the estimated age, and in six cases by more than 6 years. The average difference between factual age at death and estimated age was 4.5 years. The four subadults in the material were all correctly estimated within an age range of +/-3 years. Our study showed that forensic odontological age estimates are reliable. However, the implementation of the specific methods may need to be adjusted concerning age ranges. In the future we recommend to register anamnestic information and the different steps in the methods used. Clinical evaluation should contain more details about attrition, colour, number and presumed age of the restorations and periodontal status.