Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Sep-Dec;7(3):227-31.
doi: 10.4103/0975-1475.172445.

Dental age estimation of growing children by measurement of open apices: A Malaysian formula

Navaneetha Cugati  1 , Ramesh Kumaresan  2 , Balamanikanda Srinivasan  2 , Priyadarshini Karthikeyan  3
Affiliations

Dental age estimation of growing children by measurement of open apices: A Malaysian formula

Navaneetha Cugati et al. J Forensic Dent Sci. 2015 Sep-Dec.

Abstract

Background: Age estimation is of prime importance in forensic science and clinical dentistry. Age estimation based on teeth development is one reliable approach. Many radiographic methods are proposed on the Western population for estimating dental age, and a similar assessment was found to be inadequate in Malaysian population. Hence, this study aims at formulating a regression model for dental age estimation in Malaysian children population using Cameriere's method.

Materials and methods: Orthopantomographs of 421 Malaysian children aged between 5 and 16 years involving all the three ethnic origins were digitalized and analyzed using Cameriere's method of age estimation. The subjects' age was modeled as a function of the morphological variables, gender (g), ethnicity, sum of normalized open apices (s), number of tooth with completed root formation (N0) and the first-order interaction between s and N0.

Results: The variables that contributed significantly to the fit were included in the regression model, yielding the following formula: Age = 11.368-0.345g + 0.553No -1.096s - 0.380s.No, where g is a variable, 1 for males and 2 for females. The equation explained 87.1% of total deviance.

Conclusion: The results obtained insist on reframing the original Cameriere's formula to suit the population of the nation specifically. Further studies are to be conducted to evaluate the applicability of this formula on a larger sample size.

Keywords: Age estimation; Cameriere's method; dental age; forensic odontology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cameriere's method of measurement for the teeth with open apices
Figure 2
Figure 2
Plot for Inter-observer measurements
Figure 3
Figure 3
Plot for Intra-observer measurements
Figure 4
Figure 4
Plot of residuals against fitted values using regression model (Equation 1)
Figure 5
Figure 5
Plot of the observed against predicted values using Equation 1
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Demirjian A. Dentition. In: Faulkner F, Tanner JM, editors. Human Growth 2. London: Baillier Tindall; 1978. pp. 413–44.
    1. Nik-Hussein NN, Kee KM, Gan P. Validity of Demirjian and Willems methods for dental age estimation for Malaysian Children aged 5-15 years old. Forensic Sci Int. 2011;204:208.e1–6. - PubMed
    1. Demirjian A, Buschnag PH, Tanguy R, Patterson DK. Interrelationship among measures of somatic, skeletal, dental and sexual maturity. Am J Orthod. 1985;88:433–8. - PubMed
    1. Demirjian A, Goldstein H, Tanner JM. A new system of dental age assessment. Hum Biol. 1973;45:211–27. - PubMed
    1. Nolla CM. The development of the permanent teeth. J Dent Child. 1960;27:254–66.

LinkOut - more resources