Age estimation in Western Indian population by Cameriere's and Drusini's methods

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study is to determine applicability of Cameriere's and Drusini's methods in Western Indian population. METHODOLOGY: Panoramic radiographs of total 300 Gujarati individuals, equally divided into four study groups were studied by two investigators. The pulp/tooth area ratio (AR) were calculated for maxillary and mandibular canines and tooth coronal indexes (TCI) i.e., the ratio between coronal pulp cavity height and crown height were calculated for mandibular premolars and first and second molars. The acquired data were subjected to correlation and regression analysis and also inter and intraobserver reliability was obtained for both the investigators. RESULTS: The ARs and TCIs for all the respective teeth were significantly correlated with the age of the individuals. The individual regression formulae were derived for all the teeth and were then used separately to calculate the age. There was no statistically significant difference between the mean chronological age and mean calculated age for all the teeth.(P > 0.05). The mean absolute errors for all the teeth were <10 years. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study prove the applicability of Cameriere's and Drusini's age estimation methods for Western Indian population. However, the weak correlation coefficients suggest the need for further studies to get more accurate results.