Estimation of age from development and eruption of teeth

The developing dentition is used to assess maturity and estimate the age in many disciplines including anthropology, archeology, forensic science, pediatric dentistry and orthodontics. There is evidence that dental development is less effected than skeletal development by malnutrition and hormonal disorders. There are two methods of dental age assessment, radiographically and by clinically visualization of eruption of teeth. The clinical method to assess dental age is based on the emergence of teeth in the mouth. This method is more suitable since it does not require any special equipment, expertise and is more economical. Tooth formation is the best choice for estimating the age as variations are less as compared to other development factors. Eruption of teeth is one of the changes observed easily among the various dynamic changes that occur from the formation of teeth to the final shedding of teeth. The times of eruption of teeth are fairly constant and this can be made use of in ascertaining the average age of eruption of the tooth. Assessment of age of an individual by examination of teeth is one of the accepted methods of age determination.