For disaster victim identification (DVI), the destruction of human remains can pose significant challenges in discerning useful identifying details. In such cases, dental age estimation may help to identify individuals, but tends to be less accurate for adults than for younger victims with less mature dentition. The Kvaal and Cameriere methods are used to estimate adult age by radiologically assessing pulp reduction resulting from the secondary dentin deposition in single-rooted teeth. This review aims to provide a meta-analysis of recent studies and their accuracy using Kvaal and Cameriere methods for adult age estimation from radiological pulp assessment. Searches were conducted in databases including Scielo, PubMed, EBSCO, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Wiley Online Library. The searches were performed using the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The search resulted in 1 241 studies of which 39 studies were eligible to be included. These studies comprised data from 12 distinct populations with a total of 7 510 samples. The Kvaal method underestimated (?2.95 years, 95%CI) and the Cameriere method overestimated (0.89 years, 95%CI) the assessed adult age in this meta-analysis. The Cameriere method presented lower mean difference and standard error of the estimation (SEE) compared to the Kvaal method. Overall, both methods can be used as adjunctive methods to estimate adult age through population-specific equations.

This review presents an updated meta-analysis on the accuracy of two radiological pulp assessment methods, Kvaal and Cameriere, for dental age estimation.

The Kvaal method underestimated and the Cameriere method overestimated the assessed age in the results of this meta-analysis.

Type of radiograph, sample composition and size, methodology, population used, and observer differences are factors that affect the accuracy of these methods.