Demirjian's system for estimating dental age among Northwestern Turkish children aged 4-16 years

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the timing of individual tooth formation stages in a group of northwestern Turkish children and to evaluate the suitability of Demirjian's method.

Study design: dental ages (DAs) were assessed from 1,678 digital panoramic radiographs of healthy children (aged 4-16 years; 743 females and 935 males). Seven mandibular teeth were evaluated according to the Demirjian's eight-grade dental maturity scale by one examiner. Dental age was compared to chronologic age (CA) using a paired t-test. Intra- and inter-observer agreements were assessed with 250 OPGs.

Results: The mean difference between DA and CA was statistically significant among genders (p = 0.004), and it was 0.50 +/-1.90 years in girls and 0.77+/-1.86 years in boys. The mean DA was significantly higher (p<0.0001) than the mean CA in the entire studied group; therefore, dental development was considerably accelerated. The Intra- and Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for the assessment of DA were 0.964 and 0.961, respectively, which is considered "substantial agreement".

Conclusion: Results show that the mean DAs of the studied group of Turkish children are significantly higher than the CAs. Overestimation is notable at the beginning of puberty.