Division of Forensic Medicine, National Forensic Service, 139 Jiyangno, Yangcheon-Gu, Seoul 158-707, Republic of Korea.
Forensic Sci Int. 2011 Sep 10;211(1-3):41-6. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.04.011. Epub 2011 May 11.
In estimating age of juveniles and adolescents, the teeth are employed primarily because of its low variability and less affection by endocrine and nutritional status in development. Demirjian established criteria for evaluating maturity of teeth and his method has been used throughout the world. However, several studies showed the inappropriateness of Demirjian's method on populations other than the one it is based on. Consequently some researchers modified Demirjian's method using data of several different populations. Demirjian himself also published a revised method to overcome other shortcomings of his original method. The aim of this study was to test the validity of Demirjian's and the modified methods (Demirjian's revised, Willems', Chaillet's and new Korean methods) for Korean juveniles and adolescents. 1483 digital orthopantomograms which consist of 754 males and 729 females in the age range of 3-16 years were collected. New age estimation method based on Korean population data was calculated. Dental age was estimated according to each method and the validity was evaluated using the differences between chronological and dental age. The inter- and intra-observer reliability was evaluated to be excellent. Statistically significant difference was observed between chronological and dental age in all the methods for both sexes except new Korean method for both sexes and Demirjian's revised method for males. However, when analyzing absolute and squared value of difference, Willems' method was found to be most accurate followed by new Korean method with slight difference for Korean population for both sexes. In conclusion, both Willems' method and new Korean method conducted by present study were proven to be suitable for Korean population.
在估计青少年的年龄时，主要使用牙齿，因为牙齿的变异性低，并且在发育过程中受内分泌和营养状况的影响较小。Demirjian 建立了评估牙齿成熟度的标准，他的方法已在全球范围内使用。然而，几项研究表明，Demirjian 的方法不适用于其基础人群以外的人群。因此，一些研究人员使用来自多个不同人群的数据修改了 Demirjian 的方法。Demirjian 本人也发表了一种经过修订的方法，以克服其原始方法的其他缺点。本研究旨在检验 Demirjian 及其修改方法（Demirjian 修订版、Willems 法、Chaillet 法和新韩国法）对韩国青少年的有效性。共收集了年龄在 3-16 岁之间的 754 名男性和 729 名女性的 1483 张数字化全景片。基于韩国人群数据的新年龄估计方法被计算出来。根据每种方法估算牙齿年龄，并通过比较年龄和牙齿年龄之间的差异来评估其有效性。评估了观察者间和观察者内的可靠性，结果均为优秀。除了新韩国法对于两性和 Demirjian 修订法对于男性外，所有方法在两性中，除了新韩国法对于两性和 Demirjian 修订法对于男性外，牙齿年龄和实际年龄之间均存在统计学差异。然而，在分析差异的绝对值和平方值时，发现 Willems 法对于两性均最准确，新韩国法稍次之。总的来说，本研究中使用的 Willems 法和新韩国法均适用于韩国人群。
