FURTHER COMMENTS ON THE ESTIMATION OF ERROR ASSOCIATED WITH THE GUSTAFSON DENTAL AGE ESTIMATION METHOD

Many researchers in the field of forensic odontology have questioned t he error estimates stated in Gustafson's [1] paper outlining the relat ionship between certain dental attributes and age. In a substantial re -working of Gustafson's data, Maples and Rice [2] corrected Gustafson' s regression statistics and found that the error associated with the a ge estimate was nearly double that claimed by Gustafson. We offer anot her statistical analysis of Gustafson's data and find that the errors calculated by Maples and Rice were also in error, being about a year t oo small. We give a formula for what we believe to be the correct trea tment of errors in such cases, but conclude by observing that there is an urgent need for a more rigorous study of the traits first tabulate d by Gustafson.