Reliability of age estimation using periodontal ligament visibility in South Indian Population

Introduction: Teeth are apposite tissue structures as they can survive for several decades or even thousands of years due to their hardness and resistance to corrosion and can indicate the age of an individual. Not only the hard tissue changes but also, the visibility of the dental soft tissues, periodontal ligament can be used for age estimation. Material and methods: The study sample consisted of 330 OPGs of patients [aged between 14 and 76 (mean age of 32.82±12.75 years)]. Visibility of the periodontal ligament in lower third molars was done in accordance with the method followed by Guo et al (2020) and was graded in 4 stages. The regression equations were derived using simple linear regression analysis to estimate the efficiency of prediction of the age in total as well as stratified by gender. Results: Our study results showed a significant trend (p<0.001) of increasing age with higher grades of periodontal ligament score in males and females as well as in total. Conclusion: Periodontal ligament visibility scores can be used as an adjunct to other age estimation techniques for confirming the age of living individuals as well as deceased.