Date Approved

2016

Date Posted

4-27-2016

Degree Type

Open Access Senior Honors Thesis

Department or School

Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

First Advisor

Megan K. Moore

Second Advisor

Liza Cerroni-Long

Abstract

Age estimation techniques are of medicolegal importance for estimating the age of living asylum seekers. as well as for unidentified human remains from forensic cases. As there are many techniques for age estimation, this study compares four different methods using dental radiographs of modern subadults (under 18 years) to determine which is more accurate for the modern sample. Additionally, this study explores age estimation from apophyseal fusion in the pelvis using the Risser method of the iliac crest compared to estimates of dental age. This study additionally compares the accuracy of four dental age estimation methods, including: Schour and Massler (1941), Schour and Massler (1944), Ubelaker (1989), and the London Atlas Method by AlQahtani et al. (2010). To determine the accuracy of the methods, this project correlates the actual age of modern individuals and the age estimated by each of the aforementioned methods. Overall it was found that Schour and Massler (1941), Schour and Massler (1944), and the London Atlas Method overestimated the age while the Ubelaker method slightly underestimated the age. All dental age estimation methods far exceed the accuracy of apophyseal fusion of the iliac crest using the Risser method.

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