One major criterion for dental age estimation is the evaluation of secondary dentine formation. Teeth provide several useful points about an individual age. With advancing age secondary dentine is deposited along the wall of the dental pulp chamber leading to reduction in the size of the pulp cavity. This age related changes can be determined and measured from dental radiographs. The aim of this study was to explore if the measurements of area of pulp to tooth performed on periapical radiographs of individual tooth can be used for individual age estimation. The Periapical radiographs of maxillary and mandibular teeth, aged 7 to 69 years were selected. Dental maturity was evaluated by measuring the pulp tooth area ratio on all teeth. The ratios of the pulp/tooth area showed significant correlation to the chronological age and the coefficient of determination (r2) was highest in maxillary canine when an exponential or a linguistic regression model was constructed.

Key words: Pulp area; Tooth area; Secondary dentine; Periapical radiographs.