Objective human tooth colour measurements as a means of determining chronologic age in vivo and ex vivo

Colour is a subjective sensation and as such is difficult to use in a quantitative study. However a number of clinical studies on extracted teeth have shown a good correlation between tooth colour and age. The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of a specific spectrophotometer in determining tooth colour on extracted and non- extracted teeth and to look for a possible age relationship. There were two parts in this study. An ex vivo study concentrated on collected tooth material. Single rooted teeth were selected out of each of the 5- year-age groups (ages ranged from 15-89 years). Colour measurements were performed on the mesial and vestibular aspects of the roots as well on the mid-vestibular aspects of the enamel crown. An in vivo study concentrated on the use of this specific shade taking system in living patients (n=70). Statistical analysis of the results revealed regression formulas for both ex vivo and in vivo situations displaying adjusted R-squares between 0.48 and 0.56. It may be concluded that age related trends were found. Having its shortcomings, the shade taking system was found to perform well as a convenient adjunct to dental age estimation in both the living and the deceased.