Dental age estimation methods-A review

Age is one of the essential factors in establishing the identity of a person. Chronological age (CA) is an important issue in most societies for school attendance voting consent majority criminal responsibility marriage sports and mandatory retirement. However there are many instances where CA might not be known due to undocumented or missing birth date. The age estimation methods include a range of Medical Dental Physical and Psycho-social assessments as well as approaches to assess age that make use of existing local knowledge. One of the most accurate reliable and fast methods of age determination especially in the growing children is the dental method of age estimation. This has become an established practice in legal medicine and forensic dentistry. Different methods are used for dental age estimation: Morphological method Biochemical method and Radiological method. Radiographic assessment of age is a simple non-invasive and reproducible method. Demirjian Goldstein and Tanner method (1973) has been used universally with appropriate modifications.