Fetal Age Assessment From Primary Teeth and Long Bones.

ABSTRACT: This study evaluated traditional and expedited methods for assessing the age of fetal remains. Because of their rare occurrence, the discovery of fresh, decomposing, disfigured, or skeletal fetuses engenders heightened awareness by forensic pathologists primarily tasked with age estimation in relation to viability. With decomposed complete or isolated fetal remains, dentists focus on primary molar mineralization, whereas anthropologists perform long bone measurements along with discernment of other indicators of skeletal maturity to obtain an age estimation.The results of this study are 4-fold: (1) The "best" technique for harvesting fetal tooth buds and long bones is the dissection of the developing tooth buds with maceration for the long bones. (2) Metric analysis was applied to the tooth buds and long bones for age estimation, and the findings were correlated. (3) There is a statistically significant difference between known age and dental age and between dental age and long bone age. The difference between known age and long bone age is not statistically significant, but a type II error exists because of the small sample size. (4) A central incisor staging technique for fetuses younger than 26 weeks was developed as a supplement to the molar staging system of Kraus and Jordan (1965).

Dental Age Assessment of United States Black and White Children: Performance Reliability of Harris and McKee (1990).

ABSTRACT: Medicolegal authorities use forensic dental age assessment of children to establish a biologic profile to assist in human identification, answer questions related to immigration, and answer questions used to substantiate eligibility for social benefits. The goal of this study was to assess the performance reliability of the child dental age assessment data previously published for White and Black children in the United States. A total of 432 dental panoramic radiographs were obtained from 3 geographic locations in the United States: Memphis, Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Saint Louis, Missouri. Radiographs were staged, and the estimated age was calculated using the previously published data. Multiple age assessments were conducted to determine the effect of excluding certain teeth on estimated age. The results indicated estimated ages using the previously published reference data set were accurate and concordant with known chronologic age across the ancestral, sex, and geographic categories. The results also indicated that the known chronologic age fell within one standard deviation of the estimated age more than the statistical expectation for most categories. Excluding canines provided the most accurate estimation of known chronologic age.

The applicability of dental wear in age estimation for a modern American population.

OBJECTIVES: Though applied in bioarchaeology, dental wear is an underexplored age indicator in the biological anthropology of contemporary populations, although research has been conducted on dental attrition in forensic contexts (Kim et al., , Journal of Forensic Sciences, 45, 303; Prince et al., , Journal of Forensic Sciences, 53, 588; Yun et al., , Journal of Forensic Sciences, 52, 678). The purpose of this study is to apply and adapt existing techniques for age estimation based on dental wear to a modern American population, with the aim of producing accurate age range estimates for individuals from an industrialized context. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Methodologies following Yun and Prince were applied to a random sample from the University of New Mexico (n = 583) and Universidade de Coimbra (n = 50) cast and skeletal collections. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between tooth wear scores and age. RESULTS: Application of both Yun et al. () and Prince et al. () methodologies resulted in inaccurate age estimates. Recalibrated sectioning points correctly classified individuals as over or under 50 years for 88% of the sample. Linear regression demonstrated 60% of age estimates fell within ±10 years of the actual age, and accuracy improved for individuals under 45 years, with 74% of predictions within ±10 years. DISCUSSION: This study demonstrates age estimation from dental wear is possible for modern populations, with comparable age intervals to other established methods. It provides a quantifiable method of seriation into "older" and "younger" adult categories, and provides more reliable age interval estimates than cranial sutures in instances where only the skull is available.

Amelogenesis Imperfecta, Facial Esthetics and Snap-On Smile.

Amelogenesis imperfecta is a hereditary enamel protein disorder affecting deciduous and secondary crown formation. The prevalence ranges from 1:700 to 1:14,000 depending on the population. These teeth may be hypoplastic, hypomineralized, or hypermineralized and are often discolored, sensitive and caries vulnerable. Patients often present with psychosocial issues due to appearance. Primary teeth are often treated with stainless steel crowns while secondary teeth are treated with full coverage esthetic crowns. The presenting preteen male here was fitted with Snap-On Smile? (www.snaponsmile.com). This treatment option provided cosmetic enhancement of the patient's appearance besides stabilization without altering the primary and secondary dentition during adolescent development.

Morphometric analysis of pelvic sexual dimorphism in a contemporary Western Australian population.

Requisite to routine casework involving unidentified skeletal remains is the formulation of an accurate biological profile, including sex estimation. Choice of method(s) is invariably related to preservation and by association, available bones. It is vital that the method applied affords statistical quantification of accuracy rates and predictive confidence so that evidentiary requirements for legal submission are satisfied. Achieving the latter necessitates the application of contemporary population-specific standards. This study examines skeletal pelvic dimorphism in contemporary Western Australian individuals to quantify the accuracy of using pelvic measurements to estimate sex and to formulate a series of morphometric standards. The sample comprises pelvic multi-slice computer tomography (MSCT) scans from 200 male and 200 female adults. Following 3D rendering, the 3D coordinates of 24 landmarks are acquired using OsiriX® (v.4.1.1) with 12 inter-landmark linear measurements and two angles acquired using MorphDb. Measurements are analysed using basic descriptive statistics and discriminant functions analyses employing jackknife validation of classification results. All except two linear measurements are dimorphic with sex differences explaining up to 65 % of sample variance. Transverse pelvic outlet and subpubic angle contribute most significantly to sex discrimination with accuracy rates between 100 % (complete pelvis-10 variables) and 81.2 % (ischial length). This study represents the initial forensic research into pelvic sexual dimorphism in a Western Australian population. Given these methods, we conclude that this highly dimorphic bone can be used to classify sex with a high degree of expected accuracy.

Management of traumatic tooth injuries in the dental office.

Dental trauma is sudden, unscheduled, and the dentist and staff must be adequately equipped to expeditiously and properly treat the patient to assure the best possible outcome. This paper reviews current dental trauma guidelines to provide the correct treatment protocol to ensure the best prognosis. The case report illustrates the technique of avulsion care, RCT care, and functional splinting in a successful manner.

Concordance of traditional osteometric and volume-rendered MSCT interlandmark cranial measurements.

The statistical quantification of error and uncertainty is inherently intertwined with ascertaining the admissibility of forensic evidence in a court of law. In the forensic anthropological discipline, the robustness of any given standard should not only be evaluated according to its stated error but by the accuracy and precision of the raw data (measurements) from which they are derived. In the absence of Australian contemporary documented skeletal collections, medical scans (e.g. multislice computed tomography-MSCT) offer a source of contemporary population-specific data for the formulation of skeletal standards. As the acquisition of morphometric data from clinical MSCT scans is still relatively novel, the purpose of this study is to assess validity of the raw data that is being used to formulate Australian forensic standards. Six human crania were subjected to clinical MSCT at a slice thickness of 0.9 mm. Each cranium and its corresponding volume-rendered three-dimensional MSCT image were measured multiple times. Whether differences between MSCT and dry bone interlandmark measurements are negligible is statistically quantified; intra- and inter-observer measurement error is also assessed. We found that traditional bone measurements are more precise than their MSCT counterparts, although overall differences between the two data acquisition methods are negligible compared to sample variance. Cranial variation accounted on average for more than 20× the variance explained by MSCT vs. bone measurements. Similarly, although differences between operators were sometimes significant compared to intra-operator variance, they were negligible when compared to sample variance, which was on average 12× larger than that due to inter-operator differences.

Estimation of sex from sternal measurements in a Western Australian population.

In Australia, particularly Western Australia, there is a relative paucity of contemporary population-specific morphometric standards for the estimation of sex from unknown skeletal remains. This is largely a historical artefact from lacking, or poorly documented, repositories of human skeletons available for study. However, medical scans, e.g. MSCT (multislice spiral computed tomography) are an ingenious and practical alternative source for contemporary data. To that end, this study is a comprehensive analysis of sternal sexual dimorphism in a sample of modern Western Australian (WA) individuals with a main purpose to develop a series of statistically robust standards for the estimation of sex. The sample comprises thoracic MSCT scans, with a mean of 0.9 millimeter (mm) slice thickness, on 187 non-pathological sterna. Following 3D volume rendering, 10 anatomical landmarks were acquired using OsiriX(®) (version 3.9) and a total of 8 inter landmark linear measurements were calculated using Morph Db (an in-house developed database application). Measurements were analyzed using basic descriptive statistics and discriminant function analyses, with statistical analyses performed using SPSS 19.0. All measurements are sexually dimorphic and sex differences explain 9.8-47.4% of sample variance. The combined length of the manubrium and body, sternal body length, manubrium width, and corpus sterni width at first sternebra contribute significantly to sex discrimination and yield the smallest sex-biases. Cross-validated classification accuracies, i.e., univariate, stepwise and direct function, are 72.2-84.5%, with a sex bias of less than 5%. We conclude that the sternum is a reliable element for sex estimation among Western Australians.