Introduction

The determination of age in the unidentified skeletal remains is very important for forensic anthropologists. The significant role of forensic anthropologist is to be aware with both the dental and skeletal development at every step of life including the initial step i.e. beginning with the fetus. Age is the part of the biological profile by which list of the missing person is narrow down. From the age estimation, the person may be included or excluded from the thought on the basis of consistency between the reported age and estimated age. The age estimation from the skeleton can be determined through the knowledge of nature, sequence, and timing of the skeletal changes throughout the life time. The correlation between the biological age and chronological age is helpful in age estimation. But due to the variation between the individual’s skeletal aging processes, the chronological age and biological age are not completely correlated. Sex and ancestry based variation are affected in the age estimation (Christensen et al, 243; Zapico, 172; James and Nordby, 87).

The development and eruption of teeth in the childhood, children and young adults is used as a gold standard for the age estimation. Root and crown come under the tooth development which are less affected by the sex, nutrition, and ill-health compare to the bone growth and development. Dental development gives more accurate chronological age than other skeletal indicators (Klepinger, 44). The rate of tooth growth and the details of tooth morphology vary from population to population, and anomalies appear in individuals, but the stages of development are the same.

The determination of age of the victims and remnants is necessary to solve the legal problems. Various methods are used for the purpose of age from dentition. These are: Clinical or Visual method, Radiographic method, Histological method, physical and chemical method.