The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of dental restorations on the accuracy of the Lamendin (1992) and Bang & Ramm (1970) dental aging methods, which rely on measurement of tooth root translucency. It has been established that root canal treatment can have a significant effect on the development of tooth root translucency (Thomas et al., 1994), but there has been no documentation of the effects of restorations. The sample for this study consists of 50 premolar teeth with no dental restorations and 50 premolar teeth with restorations from the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection. Measurement of periodontosis, root height, and root translucency were taken in millimeters with sliding calipers and age at death was recorded from the collection database. Age at the time of death was estimated using the Lamendin and Bang & Ramm methods. The difference between the estimated age and known age was calculated for each tooth. Error was compared between teeth with no restorations and teeth with restorations using a student's T-test. No significant difference (p < 0.05) was found between the errors of the teeth with restorations and the teeth without restorations for either method. It is concluded that the presence of dental restorations does not significantly impact the accuracy of the Lamendin method or the Bang & Ramm method, and that teeth with restorations may be used to estimate age using dental aging methods that rely on tooth root translucency.
Read
