Digitized radiovisiographic analysis of dental pulp of permanent mandibular first molar and second premolar for age estimation using tooth coronal index method

Background: Teeth have become a valuable index to estimate age of an individual in forensic odontology. The advent of radiovisiography (RVG) has led to accurate calculation of dental age, which may be due to more precise RVG images than other radiographic techniques. Objectives: The study aimed at estimating the age of an individual from mandibular premolar and molar through tooth coronal index (TCI) measured from digital intraoral radiographic images (RVG). Materials and Methods: Using RVG 176 periapical radiographs of mandibular second premolar and first molar of individuals of either sex aged 20–70 years residing in Chhattisgarh were taken by paralleling angle technique for the study. The RVG images of selected teeth were analyzed and height of the crown, i.e., coronal height and the height of the coronal pulp cavity, i.e., coronal pulp cavity height of each tooth were measured in millimeters using KODAK software to calculate TCI. The real age of a subject was compared with TCI of tooth and the acquired data was subjected to Pearson's correlation test. Bland and Altman regression analysis was carried out to estimate limit of agreement between the two measurements (real and calculated age). Results: Negative correlation was observed between the real age and TCI of mandibular first molar (r = −0.149, P = 0.166) and second premolar (r = −0.20, P = 0.061). The difference between real age and calculated age for premolar ranged from − 38.11 to 23.51 years (mean difference 7.30) and for first molar it was from − 34.82 to 25.22 years (mean difference 4.799), which suggested acceptable agreement. Conclusion: TCI method provides accurate estimation of age from RVG images of teeth. RVG is convenient to use, has low radiation dose, and produces sharper images than other imaging methods.