“Teeth have been used for centuries to identify unknown persons and estimating age for forensic and other scientific purposes,” says Sigríður Rósa Víðisdóttir, who completed her MA degree in Odontology spring 2012. She examined the dental maturity of teeth in 1100 Icelandic children and youths in her MA thesis and aged them by using orthopantomograms (OPGs). The result was a database for dental maturity in children and adolescents.
Víðsdóttir points out that the dental age estimation technique is considered to be highly reliable in children and adolescents. “Studies have shown that it is important for each nation to create a database for the dental maturity of children and young people. This knowledge is vital for forensic purposes as it adds precision to their work,” says Víðsidóttir who has worked as a forensic odontologists for almost two decades.
The study showed that girls and boys do not reach full dental maturity at the same time, even though there was no significant difference between the genders except in root formation in maxillary and mandibular canines. Girls in Iceland reach full dental maturity (stage 10) at 17.81 years of age for the maxillary and 18.47 years in the mandibular teeth. Boys reach full dental maturity at 18 years of age in the maxilla and 17.63 in the mandible,” says Víðsidóttir. These kinds of studies generally raise more questions than they answer according to her.
“The study is very useful for Icelandic forensic odontologists and other dentists, physicians, anthropologists, and archaeologists who use dental maturity in children and young people in their work. A reliable database has been established for age estimation for Icelandic children and youths that is comparable similar ones abroad. The database will facilitate accurate estimation of the age of Icelandic children and young people when necessary,” concludes Víðisdóttir.
Supervisor: Svend Richter, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Odontology
