Der Einfluss der Topographie des Weisheitszahns auf die Chronologie der Wurzelentwicklung-- Konsequenzen für die forensisch-odontologische Altersschätzung von Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen

INTRODUCTION: Dental findings are an important source of information regarding forensic-odontologic determination of identity and age. A main part of forensic-odontologic findings is the determination of the wisdom teeth' development. The aim of this study was to answer the question whether the topography of the wisdom teeth influences the development of the teeth. Thereby, the investigation could contribute to age estimation efforts that are carried out on persons with an unknown age and where it is of great importance to precisely determine a person's age, e. g. the age of 18 years or older.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The orthopantomograms of 1053 outpatients were evaluated. The patients were aged 14 to 24 years. The developmental stages of the wisdom teeth were determined according to Demirjian. The retention types were classified according to Archer (maxilla) and Wolf and Haunfelder (mandible). The data were calculated using statistical tools, like descriptive and inferential statistics in order to provide predictive values for the age to be above or below 18 years.

RESULTS: The correlation between the developmental stages of wisdom teeth and the chronological age was high in general. Some values allowed the prediction of an age above 18 years with a probability of more than 70 % to 80 %, in some instances even more than 90 %. The topography of the wisdom teeth did not influence the timing of the root development. The sexual dimorphism of tooth development was not present in the development of wisdom teeth.

DISCUSSION: This study provides for the first time evidence for the assumption that radiographs of the teeth in adolescents and young adults can be used for the age estimation, irrespective of the topography of the wisdom tooth. These results should be compared to data from other populations gained by the same method. The conclusions of this study might be useful in the field of forensic odontology.