Age assessment according to the stages of pulp involution in a Brazilian sample

Olze et al. (2010) proposed the use of pulp involution, classified through stages, for dental age estimation by analyzing the lower third molar. However, the absence of this tooth may render the method inapplicable. The aim of this research was to validate the stages of root pulp visibility in the lower second molar for dental age estimation in the Brazilian population. A total of 1,190 orthopantomographs obtained from participants aged between 14.00 and 30.99 years were evaluated. The data were organized and analyzed using Microsoft Excel© (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA) and R Studio (R Foundation, Vienna, Austria) software. The prediction of the age of majority achieved an accuracy of 72%. The probability of a person classified in stage 3 being over 18 years old was 100%; for stage 2, it was 95.26%; for stage 1, 82.88%; and for stage 0, 55.9%. Stage 3 was the only one to present a minimum age above 18 years, while stages 0, 1, and 2 had similar minimum and maximum ages. It is suggested that the stages of pulp involution be used for the assessment of age thresholds rather than for age estimation or the determination of a specific age range. It can be concluded that the stages of root pulp visibility in the lower second molar have the potential to be used for predicting the age of majority in Brazil, especially when used in association with other methods. Further studies are necessary in other countries to assess inter-population differences and the method's applicability across different regions.