Search

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2007.03.009 Byline: Stella Martin-de las Heras (a), Pedro Garcia-Fortea (b), Angie Ortega (a), Sara Zodocovich (c), Aurora Valenzuela (a) Keywords: Forensic odontology; Dental age estimation; Third molar mineralization; Ethnicity Abstract: Spain is frequently the entrance country into the European Union for undocumented immigrants, especially those from the Magreb (Northern Africa). Forensic age estimates for these persons are difficult because systematic studies of dental maturity are lacking. Three different populations were analyzed to determine the pattern of development of third molars as a tool for age estimation in people of different ethnic and geographic origin. Orthopantomograms from two different populations of Spanish origin (Galicia in northwestern continental Spain, and Ceuta, a Spanish province in Northern Africa) were compared to radiographs of molars from a Magrebian population (Northern Africa) resident in Ceuta. Orthopantomograms were obtained from a private dental clinic (n =344) in Galicia and from the Public Oral Health Services (n =228) in Ceuta. We looked for differences in third molar mineralization (determined with the Demirjian scale) that might serve as age indicators (older versus younger than 18 years). Differences in maturation patterns were found between sexes and populations of origin. Mineralization of tooth 38 was more advanced in males than females among subjects 18 years of age and older in all three populations. Moreover, mineralization of tooth 38 in subjects aged 18 years and older was significantly slower in the Spanish-Galicia population than in the Magrebian-Ceuta population. We found no significant differences between Magrebian and Spanish individuals from Ceuta. We conclude that differences in tooth 38 mineralization may be related more with socio-geographical than ethnic origin (ancestry), and thus constitute evidence of the relevance of socio-geographic rather than genetic factors in third molar development. We used ROC analysis to determine the accuracy of the examiner's ability to correctly estimate age as younger or older than 18 years. The results suggest that Demirjian stage for tooth 38 can be considered a good indicator of age in all three populations. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Odontology, University of Granada, Avenida de Madrid 11, 18071 Granada, Spain (b) Health Department, Government Office, Malaga, Spain (c) Private Dental Practice, Ferrol, Spain Article History: Received 5 March 2007; Accepted 13 March 2007

Age estimation is widely used to identify individuals in forensic medicine. However, the accuracy of the most commonly used procedures is markedly reduced in adulthood, and these methods cannot be applied in practice when morphological information is limited. Molecular methods for age estimation have been extensively developed in the last few years. The fact that telomeres shorten at each round of cell division has led to the hypothesis that telomere length can be used as a tool to predict age. The present study thus aimed to assess the correlation between telomere length measured in dental DNA and age, and the effect of sex and tooth type on telomere length; a further aim was to propose a statistical regression model to estimate the biological age based on telomere length. DNA was extracted from 91 tooth samples belonging to 77 individuals of both sexes and 15 to 85 years old and was used to determine telomere length by quantitative real-time PCR. Our results suggested that telomere length was not affected by sex and was greater in molar teeth. We found a significant correlation between age and telomere length measured in DNA from teeth. However, the equation proposed to predict age was not accurate enough for forensic age estimation on its own. Age estimation based on telomere length in DNA from tooth samples may be useful as a complementary method which provides an approximate estimate of age, especially when human skeletal remains are the only forensic sample available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new universal graphic dental system, Forensic Dental Symbols©, has been created to provide precision in the construction of dental records, improve standardization, and increase efficiency in dental identification procedures. Two hundred and thirty-four different graphic symbols representing the most frequent clinical status for each tooth were designed. Symbols can be then converted to a typographic font and then are ready to use in any computer. For the appropriate use, manipulation, and storage of dental information generated by the Forensic Dental Symbols©, Dental Encoder© database has been created. The database contains all the information required by INTERPOL Disaster Victim Identification (DVI)-dental-forms. To explore the possibilities that Dental Encoder© offers, an antemortem dental database from a Spanish population of 3920 military personnel had been constructed. Data generated by Dental Encoder© were classified into sex and age groups. The program can perform an automatic search of the database for cases that match a selected clinical status presented in a single tooth or a combination of situations for several teeth. Moreover, Dental Encoder© allows information to be printed on INTERPOL DVI-dental-forms, or the inclusion of any completed form into any document, technical report, or identification of dental report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Validation studies of the new DentalPrint© software were carried out with experimental bite marks in pigskin. The bite marks were digitally photographed according to the ABFO guidelines for evidence collection. Dental casts used in the experiment were scanned in 3D and 2D, and comparison overlays were generated using DentalPrint© and Adobe® Photoshop® software, respectively. Digitized photographs of the experimental bite marks and the biting edges obtained in the overlays were compared by two different examiners to analyze the impact of training and experience with the two methods. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, sensitivity, specificity, and 95% confidence intervals for each cutoff point were calculated. The expert examiner using DentalPrint© obtained the best results, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.76 (SE=0.057; CI at 95%=0.652–0.876). Fairly high specificity values were found for DentalPrint©, and the best results were obtained for the cutoff value that discriminated between the examiner's response “biter” and the rest of the possible (specificity 97.9%, CI at 95%=93.2%–99.6%). Therefore, the results presented here indicate that DentalPrint© is a useful, accurate tool for forensic purposes, although further research on the comparison process is needed to enhance the validity of bite mark analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]