Application of aspartic acid racemization to forensic odontology: post mortem designation of age at death.

The extent of racemization of aspartic acid in the dentin of healthy, carious and impacted teeth was used to define the ages of individuals at the time of their death. These determinations were performed with an error of +/- 4 years. This method holds the promise of simplifying procedures in, and extending the application of forensic odontology. The current error range of this method may be reduced by analyzing teeth of the same positional types from deceased individuals of known age. Using this method, it appears that post mortem preservation of up to 10 years has a negligible effect on the values determined for the age of individuals at death.