应用放射影像技术进行牙龄推断

Age Estimation by Dental Radiological Imaging

牙龄是年龄推断的重要方法之一,国外学者常将其与骨龄联合应用以提高年龄推断的准确性,但国内尚未普遍开展。大量研究表明,应用放射影像学这一无创的检查手段,可以准确观察牙齿的增龄性变化,如牙冠与牙根的发育程度、牙髓腔的变化等。目前应用放射影像学进行牙龄推断的主要方法有Gleiser和Hunt法、Demirjian法及牙髓腔测量法等,其中Demirjian法的准确性最高,但在推断法定敏感年龄时尚存在局限性。随着放射影像学的发展,尤其是CT的出现,依赖其高分辨率以及相匹配的测量软件,可提高牙龄推断的准确性与可靠性,有望成为今后推断活体年龄的重要手段。

Dental age plays an important role in age estimation. It has often been used together with skeletal age to improve the accuracy of age estimation abroad, but seldom performed in China. As a noninvasive technology, dental radiological imaging has been widely used in age estimation. By observing the age-related changes such as the pulp cavity and development of crown and root on radiographs. Gleiser and Hunt, as well as Demirjian have developed different methods to determine the age of human. Demirjian＇s method has been proved to be more accurate but with limitation when used in persons of eighteen and above. The accuracy and reliability of the measurements on pulp cavity could be improved as the development of computed tomography with its high resolution and intelligent software. As a convenient and accurate method, age estimation from dental computed tomographs would be more promising in the future for forensic scientists and anthropologists.