Medicolegal Study of Age by Dental Radiograph

Estimation of age of an individual whether living or dead is a subject of great medico legal importance and is the necessity for the purpose of administration of justice. Perhaps it is the second commonest medico legal problem after trauma. The study was conducted during the period of September 2007 to September 2012 and 610 cases were studied which were taken randomly from various schools, colleges and OPD’s of Department of Forensic Medicine and Department of Radio Diagnosis & Imaging, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Attrition method is the best clinical method where the attrition of molar cusps is recorded. This method is suitable for Indian population. It can be concluded, that above methods of age estimation can be tried in forensic cases in the identification of the individual with no birth records. Expertness and the combination of physical examination of the suspect, dental examination which records dental status including OPG, x-ray examination of the left hand and wrist and radiographic or CT survey of the clavicle lead to conclusions regarding the estimated age.