Reliability of Radiovisiography and Cytomorphometry in Determining the Age of an Individual: A Clinical Comparative Study

Abstract

The oral cavity can be explored as an area to identify the impacts of aging. Exfoliative cytology is a painless, rapid, and effective method for collecting intact cells from various epithelial layers for microscopic examination. Therefore, the current study’s objective was to determine the average cell size using morphometric analysis and radiovisiography (RVG) to estimate an individual’s age utilizing buccal smears and the pulp/tooth ratio. A software program was utilized to determine the cell size using exfoliative cytology, and the pulp and tooth area was measured using RVG of mandibular canine with the help of an image analysis software. Appropriate statistical tests were performed using IBM SPSS statistical software for Windows (version 25). The patient’s chronological age, pulp area, and the associated pulp–tooth area ratio values were determined, along with Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient. It was discovered by using a paired t-test to compare chronological age to the age deduced from cell size and pulp–tooth area ratio. According to the current study, age estimation could be done based on average cell size, pulp size, and pulp–tooth area ratio for forensic odontology. Studies with bigger sample sizes and diverse population would help achieve definitive conclusions about the reliability of this particular method.

Keywords

• age estimation
• cytomorphometry
• exfoliative cytology
• pulp–tooth area ratio
• radiovisiography