Engelsk titel: Age estimation based on dental examinations - borders between science and clinical experience
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Författare:
Löes S
;
Refsnes R
Email: sigbjorn.loes@odont.uib.no
Språk: Nor
Antal referenser: 9
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 07043447
Sammanfattning
The age of adolescents and young adult refugees or asylum seekers may be estimated based on forensic methods including dental clinical and X-ray examinations. Some asylum seekers and refugees without identification papers, claim to be under 18 years of age, because residence permit is then more easily granted. For individuals with a dentition in development, eruption, exfoliation and root development make it possible to reach a quite high degree of accuracy in such estimations. When the dentition is fully developed, and all apices are closed, the subjective judgement of the examinator becomes more important, and a dental practitioner might thus be able to give a good assessment based solely on clinical experience. Objective measurements for people with a completed root development are encumbered with several problems. First of all, the statistic analyses used for age estimation based on root development, cannot, following typical scientific standards with a 95??% confidence interval, exclude any individual from being less than 18 years of age. This is because the last measurable stage (closed apex of the wisdom tooth) is estimated to 19?-?20 years (dependent on method used), with a standard deviation on approx. 1.2 year. Another non-invasive method designed to meet this problem, particularly for «older» individuals, is Kvaal’s method, examining different proportions of the tooth and dental pulp on dental radiographs. The degree of accuracy is significantly lower than for root development studies, and the method is probably also subject to systematic errors of which the examiner cannot know the extent. Eg. deflection on the film may cause small distortions that may have impact on the final result. We claim therefore, that age estimations based on dental examinations is not always strictly scientific, but that clinical experience must be taken into account. The authorities must be properly informed about what judgements, subjective or objective, the final result is based on.