The estimation of age in malaysian adults using an established dental radiograph method – Kvaal's method

In Malaysia, the needs to have a documented work in the estimation of age for adults have become a necessity as the number of reported cases of people without proper identification paper is rising. That includes a large number of immigrants in this country. Generally, Malaysian population are from the Mongoloid group of people which consisted of the Malays, the Borneo indigenous and the Chinese. The other is a small percentage of people from the Indian continent. The selected healthy teeth fit closely with the selection criteria put forward by Kvaal et al 1995. One hundred and seventy teeth from one hundred and seventy individuals were selected whereby each radiograph represents a single tooth. All of the measurements were done by the first author blindly without any knowledge of the samples’ gender and age. Only the teeth from the maxilla were studied. Pearson's correlation coefficient for the combination of all the teeth was 0.94 while individual's teeth were 0.92, 0.98 and 0.93 for the maxillary central incisor, lateral incisor and second premolar respectively. The Standard Error of Means was 0.5 years when all the teeth were combined together while individual teeth gave 0.56, 1.28 and 1.65 years. This is below the recommended ±7 years Standard Error of Means required in the estimation of age.

We propose that Kvaal (et al 1995) method may be used to estimate the age of adult in the Malaysian population. Inference could also be made that the method may be used in the Mongoloids (Sundadonts and Sinodonts) population in our region.