Journal of Dental Research, Vol 67, 1319-1322, Copyright © 1988 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals
Application to forensic odontology of aspartic acid racemization in unerupted and supernumerary teeth
T. Ogino and H. Ogino
Department of Oral Surgery, Tokyo Women's Medical College, Japan.
Racemization of aspartic acid in dentin protein during the human lifetime
progresses with age. The extent of racemization of aspartic acid in coronal
dentin of normal permanent teeth can be used in forensic odontology to
estimate the age of an individual at the time of death (Ogino et al.,
1985). A series of experiments was conducted with dentin separated from
unerupted and supernumerary teeth of various ages in an attempt to evaluate
the advantages and limitations of this age-estimation method. The current
study on nine tooth specimens showed that some unerupted permanent teeth
with normal-sized and -shaped crowns (impacted third molar, canine, and
incisor) could be used to estimate the age of individuals at the time of
death within +/- 4 years. However, supernumerary teeth (mesiodens,
paramolar) with extremely tiny (length of crown: 4 approximately 5 mn) and
abnormally shaped crowns could not be used for analysis. In such cases, the
estimated age of individuals analyzed by the racemization method deviated
considerably from their actual age.
