Karies und Füllungen an Weisheitszähnen als forensisch-odontologisches Hilfsmittel der Bestimmung eines chronologischen Alters über 18 Jahren. Radiologische Untersuchungen an Panoramaschichtaufnahmen von Kindern und Jugendlichen

UNLABELLED: Dental findings are an important source of information regarding forensic-odontologic determinations of identity and a person's age. A main part of odontologic findings is the judgement of the dental status, including caries and identification of filled teeth. The aim of this study was to answer the question whether fillings of wisdom teeth allow individual age estimation, in particular 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. For each wisdom tooth the values "decayed", "filled", "decayed and filled", or "not decayed and not filled" were registered. The data were then calculated using tools of descriptive and inferential statistics in order to provide predictive values for the age to be above or below 18 years.

RESULTS: The majority of wisdom teeth in this study group showed neither caries nor fillings. However, the correlation between filled wisdom teeth and an age over 18 years was very high, up to 100%.

DISCUSSION: This study provides for the first time predictive values for the estimation whether a person is 18 years of age depending on the presence of filled wisdom teeth. This finding is a useful tool for determining the age limit of 18 years. The sanitary condition of teeth is dependent from both social and individual circumstances. Therefore, the calculated values also reflect the culture of the population under study. Further, they are time-dependent and have to be compared to data from other populations.