What the study found
Periodontal ligament (PDL) visibility staging in third molars was associated with age and showed good ability to separate individuals who were at least 21 years old from those who were younger. The authors describe this as a reliable, reproducible complementary tool for forensic age estimation around that threshold.
Why the authors say this matters
The study suggests this may be useful for forensic age estimation in living individuals near legally relevant age thresholds, where exact age prediction is difficult after dental maturation is complete. The authors conclude it may support probabilistic decision-making in legally relevant age assessment and contribute to a multimodal forensic age estimation framework.
What the researchers tested
The researchers retrospectively analyzed 1,049 digital orthopantomograms, which are panoramic dental X-rays, from Turkish individuals aged 15 to 25 years. They assessed PDL visibility in maxillary and mandibular third molars using the Olze et al. staging system and examined links with age, sex, and tooth position. They also used receiver operating characteristic analysis to test performance for identifying people aged 21 years or older.
What worked and what didn't
More advanced PDL visibility stages were significantly associated with increasing age. Mandibular third molars provided the most informative staging patterns, and the model showed an area under the curve of 0.79 for the 21-year threshold, which the authors describe as good discriminative accuracy with balanced sensitivity and specificity. Substantial intra- and inter-observer agreement was reported, supporting methodological reliability.
What to keep in mind
The study was limited to a Turkish population and to people aged 15 to 25 years, so the findings are framed within that scope. The abstract does not provide detailed limitations beyond this, and the authors emphasize that the method supports threshold-based classification rather than exact age prediction.
Key points
- PDL visibility in third molars increased with age.
- Mandibular third molars were the most informative teeth in the analysis.
- The method showed an AUC of 0.79 for distinguishing individuals aged 21 years or older.
- Observer agreement was substantial for both repeated and between-observer assessments.
- The authors describe the method as a complementary tool, not an exact age predictor.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- Third molar PDL visibility helped distinguish age 21 status
- Authors:
- Mehmet Oguzhan Ergin, Kamile Ercıyas, Sevim Samioglu Gunes, Aysun Baransel Isır
- Institutions:
- Gaziantep University, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep University, Harran University
- Publication date:
- 2026-02-24
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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