Correlation between Chronological Age and Pulp-Tooth Dimensions in Mandibular First Premolars

One of the crucial elements of applied forensic research is estimating age, facilitating the identification of unidentified human remains. Teeth are favored because of their durability against environmental and post-mortem alterations. This research evaluated linear measurements of pulp and tooth using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images and pulp-to-tooth ratio measures of mandibular first premolars (M4) for age estimates in an Iraqi demographic utilizing ordinal logistic regression (OLR). A retrospective examination of 400 CBCT images (600 M4) was performed. Measurements of linear and ratio dimensions were acquired from the sagittal, coronal, and axial planes. Four OLR models, both inclusive and exclusive of sex, were evaluated to ascertain prediction accuracy and identify the most significant variables. Age had a negative correlation with most parameters, particularly with pulp length on the sagittal plane. The maximum accuracy of 63.3% was attained through the integration of linear measurements and pulp-tooth ratio measurements.