Original Article Age estimation among North Indians by cementum annulation count: A light microscopic study Jasbir Arora a , Daisy Sahni b, *, Indu Talwar a , Vidya Rattan c a Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160012, India b Department of Anatomy, PGIMER, Chandigarh 160012, India c Department of Oral Health Sciences, PGIMER, Chandigarh 160012, India article info Article history: Received 20 August 2013 Accepted 15 November 2013 Keywords: Teeth Cementum annulations Age estimation abstract Aim of the study: Dental hard tissues are reliable tool for age estimation. Present investi- gation was aimed to study cementum annulations in relation to age, sex and periodontal disease and its application in age estimation. Material and methods: 103 (M ¼ 36, F ¼ 67) single rooted teeth extracted due to caries, or- thodontic, periodontal disease and prosthetic reasons were collected from Department of Oral Health Sciences, PGIMER, Chandigarh. Labiolingual sections were prepared and cementum annulations were photographed under light microscope. Counting of annula- tions was done on image analysis software (VideoTesT e Size 5.0). Age was estimated by adding total number of annulations to tooth specific mean eruption age. Data was analyzed separately for pooled data, two sexes and with periodontal disease. Results: Good correlation (r ¼ 0.9) was observed between cementum annulation count and known age in pooled data as well as in two sexes (Males, r ¼ 0.9 and Females, 1.0). Even, in periodontal diseased teeth, a good correlation was found (r ¼ 0.9). In these cases, absolute mean error was approximately 7.1 years as compared to 5.7 years in teeth having no periodontal disease (r ¼ 1.0). In pooled data, this error was approximately 6.40 years. Conclusion: It is feasible to estimate age by counting cementum annulations irrespective of sex but periodontal status of tooth has to be considered. Copyright ª 2013, Anatomical Society of India. Published by Reed Elsevier India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Estimation of age is the most significant issue in the con- struction of profiles in living, dead and forensic cases. Many techniques are currently in use for age estimation including bone development, secondary sexual characteristics, stature height and dentition. It is easy to estimate age during the developmental stages but all the methods have their own limitations in terms of precision and need of adequate material for identification purposes. In some forensic cases, teeth are the only exceptional source for age estimation and identifica- tion of the victim. Its macroscopic, microscopic examination * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 0172 2755201. E-mail address: daisy_sahni@rediffmail.com (D. Sahni). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasi journal of the anatomical society of india xxx (2013) 1 e5 Please cite this article in press as: Arora J, et al., Age estimation among North Indians by cementum annulation count: A light microscopic study, Journal of the Anatomical Society of India (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasi.2013.11.002 0003-2778/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2013, Anatomical Society of India. Published by Reed Elsevier India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasi.2013.11.002