Objective:

To determine the accuracy and precision of dental methods for age estimation based on transparency of root dentin.

Materials and Methods:

Transversal study of comparative type where 90 uniradicular teeth of a Peruvian sample of 90 male adult corpses were evaluated. In each tooth was measured: height of periodontosis, root height and height of transparency of root dentin. With these measurements the dental ages were found according to the methods of Prince-Ubelaker, Ubelaker-Parra and Vilcapoma, comparing the results with each other and with the chronological age (real age). Due to the normality of the data and its homocedasticity, the Pearson test, the one-factor Anova for related samples and the Tukey test were used. Accuracy was evaluated by differences between chronological and estimated ages for each method and accuracy was obtained from reliability and repeatability analysis using Bland-Altman diagrams. The significance level was 0.05.

Results:

Accuracy and precision were 0.15-0.14, 2.18-2.07, 3.5-3.11 and 9.92-9.82 for the Vilcapoma, Ubelaker-Parra, Prince-Ubelaker for white males and Prince-Ubelaker for black males, respectively. Conclusions: The Vilcapoma method had greater accuracy and precision in estimating age.

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