Studies of the chronological course of wisdom tooth eruption in a German population.

Forensic age estimation in living subjects has gained increasing significance in recent years. In dental age estimation, tooth eruption is a parameter of developmental morphology that can be analyzed by either clinical examination or by evaluation of dental X-rays. In the present study, we determined the stage of wisdom tooth eruption in 144 male and 522 female German subjects aged 12-26 years based on radiological evidence from 666 conventional orthopantomograms. The results presented here provide useful data on the age of alveolar, gingival, and complete emergence of the third molars in the occlusal plane that can be utilized for the forensic estimation of the minimum and most probable ages of individuals under investigation.