Age is an important factor in establishing the identity of an individual. Facial bones are maturational indicators that provide useful information regarding growth changes. They undergo a series of changes from prenatal to postnatal life and continue into senile life. They are also extremely resistant to fire and remain undecomposed even after an extended period of burial. If the entire adult skeleton is procured, the age and sex can be determined with maximum accuracy. However, in case of mass disasters where only fragments of bone are available for analysis, the evaluation becomes cumbersome.
Several studies have been conducted on the dry adult skull using various parameters for age and sex determination. However, not many studies have been done to determine the age of an individual using the corono- condylar distance. There are not many studies done using the Orthopantomogram as well.
This study aimed to assess the use of corono-condylar distance for age estimation using an Orthopantomogram. In our study, we observed that there was an increase in the corono-condylar distance with an increase in age. This can be used as a novel radiographic method for age estimation.
