Age Assessment in Forensic Cases: Anthropological, Odontological and Biochemical Methods for Age Estimation in the Dead

               http://www.mathewsopenaccess.com/ForensicResearch-articlesinpress.html

One of the main goals of forensic science is determining the age of an individual to perform the biological profile. This is important in criminal cases and mass disaster scenarios, where the skeletons are often incomplete, which makes difficult their identification. The knowledge and application of anthropological methods and new biochemical approaches is essential to correct age determination, leading to the identification of an individual. Forensic anthropology and odontology methods estimate age through the macroscopic changes in bones and teeth due to growth and development in subadult individuals, and degenerative changes in adults. When growth has ceased, age estimation in adults is basically based on the degenerative changes of bone and teeth, and is generally less precise than in subadults. Due to the accuracy of the age estimate decreases as the age of the individual increases, other methods have been developed for estimating the age of the adult individual based on changes at the biochemical level due to the physiological process of aging. Biochemical methods are accurate, however, they have some limitations, so its use in combination with anthropological methods can be very useful for accurately estimating age.

Traditionally, forensic anthropology and odontology methods estimate age through the macroscopic changes in bones and teeth due to growth and development in subadult individuals, and degenerative changes in adults. Selection of methods to be employed in age estimation depends upon the materials available for examination, their condition and the age category of the individual. According to the age group to which the individual belongs, different methods of age estimation can be used. In this way, dental development could be used in fetal individuals the presence of ossification nuclei or long bones development. In the case of children, dental development can be used the presence of ossification centers and the fusion of the epiphyses and development of hand and wrist bones. Dental development has been demonstrated to reflect chronological age more accurately than osteological development. 

Dental development appears to be under stronger genetic control, while osteological development is more influenced by environmental factors such as biomechanics, physiological stress and nutrition. So that, in cases of age estimation of inmature individuals (fetal, neonatal, infant, child and adolescent) a special attention on dental age estimation methods should be considered. In adolescents and young adults the most relevant age indicators are the development of the third molar development of hand and wrist bones spheno-occipital fusion (Scheuer and Black, 2000; Madeline and Elster, 1995), and fusion of the sternal end of the clavicle It is advisable to use as many indicators as possible, to obtain better results.