ISSN: 2573-1734
Authors: Preeti Sharma* and Vijay Wadhwan
Aim: In view of rising legal cases involving adolescent crimes in India, it is becoming extremely important to determine the correct age of the adolescents. The present study was planned to determine the adolescent ages 14 and 16 years by radiological study of permanent mandibular second molars of the participants. Methods: Digitalized orthopantomographs of 434 subjects (246 males and 188 females) of age group 13-18 years, from North Indian population, were analysed to evaluate the open or closed root apex of mandibular second molar following Demirjian method. Results: Based on Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, 13 years 8 months was the cut-off age in males while 13 years 9 months was the cut-off age in females for the apex closure. Fairly good sensitivity was found in males (95.7%) and females (98.6%). Conclusion: This method is reasonably accurate, where the male subjects in whom the apical foramen is closed, were considered to be of age more than 13 years 9 months with an accuracy of 95.5% while female subjects who showed a closed apical foramen in the present study were estimated to be of age more than 13 years 9 months, with an accuracy of 95.7%.
Keywords: Forensic Odontology; Adolescents; Age Estimation; Orthopantomograph; Mandibular Second Molars; Crime Rate
